house arrest

house arrest (countable and uncountable, plural house arrests)

1. (law) Confinement of a person to his or her residence, sometimes with a limited travel allowance, ordered by a judge or other authority as a more lenient alternative to imprisonment.
   • 1986 July 20, Richard Haitch, “Follow-up on the News: House Arrest Instead of Prison”, in New York Times, retrieved 27 April 2014:

     Convicted in Federal District Court in Brooklyn of insurance fraud, a 35-year-old legal secretary could have received up to 50 years in prison and a $56,000 fine. The judge sentenced her instead to house arrest for two years.