The DetachedCriteria class lets you create a query outside the scope of a session, and then later execute it using some arbitrary Session.

DetachedCriteria query = DetachedCriteria.forClass(Cat.class)
    .add( Property.forName("sex").eq('F') );
    
Session session = ....;
Transaction txn = session.beginTransaction();
List results = query.getExecutableCriteria(session).setMaxResults(100).list();
txn.commit();
session.close();

A DetachedCriteria may also be used to express a subquery. Criterion instances involving subqueries may be obtained via Subqueries or Property.

DetachedCriteria avgWeight = DetachedCriteria.forClass(Cat.class)
    .setProjection( Property.forName("weight").avg() );
session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
    .add( Property.forName("weight").gt(avgWeight) )
    .list();

DetachedCriteria weights = DetachedCriteria.forClass(Cat.class)
    .setProjection( Property.forName("weight") );
session.createCriteria(Cat.class)
    .add( Subqueries.geAll("weight", weights) )
    .list();

Even correlated subqueries are possible:

DetachedCriteria avgWeightForSex = DetachedCriteria.forClass(Cat.class, "cat2")
    .setProjection( Property.forName("weight").avg() )
    .add( Property.forName("cat2.sex").eqProperty("cat.sex") );
session.createCriteria(Cat.class, "cat")
    .add( Property.forName("weight").gt(avgWeightForSex) )
    .list();