duty to retreat

[ doo-tee tuhri-treet, dyoo-tee ]

/ ˈdu ti tə rɪˈtrit, ˈdyu ti /

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noun Law.

a legal principle that requires a person as a first response to back away or flee from a threatening situation rather than attempt self-defense by deadly force: Duty to retreat has always been a debatable doctrine.

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Compare stand your ground.

Origin of duty to retreat

First recorded in 1780–90

Words nearby duty to retreat

duty, duty-bound, duty-free, duty-free shop, duty officer, duty to retreat, duumvir, duumvirate, Duvalier, Duve, Duveneck

How to use duty to retreat in a sentence

In his view, a writer has only one duty: to be present in his books.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
She completed a yoga teacher-training program and, in the spring of 2008, went on a retreat in Peru to study with shamans.
How Taryn Toomey’s ‘The Class’ Became New York’s Latest Fitness Craze|Lizzie Crocker|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Our duty is to make sure that they realize that the Prophet is not avenged.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Our Duty Is to Keep Charlie Hebdo Alive|Ayaan Hirsi Ali|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A passing off-duty school safety officer named Fred Lucas said that he had been told the man was a drug dealer.
Shot Down During the NYPD Slowdown|Michael Daly|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST

What 15 months in a federal correction institution will be like, according to a man who counsels to-be inmates.
How a ‘Real Housewife’ Survives Prison: ‘I Don’t See [Teresa Giudice] Having a Cakewalk Here’|Michael Howard|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Each day she resolved, "To-morrow I will tell Felipe;" and when to-morrow came, she put it off again.
Ramona|Helen Hunt Jackson
All the operations of her brain related themselves somehow to to-morrow afternoon.
Hilda Lessways|Arnold Bennett
And as she hesitated between obedience to one and duty toward the other, her life, her love and future was in the balance.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
"Buy something for your wife that-is-to-be," he said to his grand-nephew, as he handed him the folded paper.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
Something remote and ancient stirred in her, something that was not of herself To-day, something half primitive, half barbaric.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood