self-defense

British, self-de·fence

[self-di-fens, self-]

noun

1. the act of defending one's person when physically attacked, as by countering blows or overcoming an assailant.

   the art of self-defense.

2. a claim or plea that the use of force or injuring or killing another was necessary in defending one's own person from physical attack.

   He shot the man who was trying to stab him and pleaded self-defense at the murder trial.

3. an act or instance of defending or protecting one's own interests, property, ideas, etc., as by argument or strategy.

Other Word Forms

• self-defensive adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of self-defense¹

First recorded in 1645–55

Example Sentences

Local police declared it a clear case of self-defense under the state’s Stand Your Ground law.

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Harrison testified in court Thursday that Rinderknecht claimed he would use the gun in self-defense against his brother-in-law.

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“Our army should continue to grow into an invincible entity that destroys all threats approaching our range of self-defense,” Kim said in a speech, according to a Saturday report by state media.

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South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said Thursday he was appointing a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into the killing of Scott Spivey in a road-rage encounter that prosecutors determined was self-defense.

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Our Chris Smith’s main worry is that his kindly alternate dimension father and brother will find out that he killed his doppelganger in an act of self-defense; Earth X Peacemaker would have murdered him otherwise.

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