writ of detinue
- noun
- /rɪt əv dɛtɪnju/
- Archaic
:
auto de detención
- The court issued a writ of detinue to ensure the company returned the disputed equipment.
Examples
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After months of waiting, the museum obtained a writ of detinue to recover their stolen artifacts.
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His lawyer advised him to apply for a writ of detinue to get his property back from the landlord.
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The lawyer filed a writ of detinue to recover the stolen artwork.
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Can you explain what a writ of detinue is?
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After months of waiting, the museum obtained a writ of detinue to recover their stolen artifacts.
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His lawyer advised him to seek a writ of detinue so he could reclaim his furniture from the former tenant.
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The court issued a writ of detinue to compel the return of the valuable manuscript to its rightful owner.
Synonyms
1
8.2
A document from a court that orders someone to do or stop something
A court order that tells someone to give land back to its rightful owner
A legal order to make someone return a place or property after staying there without permission
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built: a 'writ' is a legal document and 'detinue' names the claim concerning wrongfully held property, so a 'writ of detinue' straightforwardly denotes a legal order related to recovering unlawfully withheld goods. Although the vocabulary is specialized/legal and may be rare, the meaning follows directly from the constituents, so a learner who knows both words can infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Writ of detinue is an old court paper: a writ is a written order and detinue comes from a word meaning 'to hold back'. The picture to remember is a judge giving a paper that tells someone to give back things they are keeping, so it means 'an order to return goods'.