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

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.

From Salon

“How many people do you have to hurt before self-defense feels like a hollow refrain?”

From Salon

However, Bray has written, most if not all antifa members “wholeheartedly support militant self-defense against the police and the targeted destruction of police and capitalist property.”

From Los Angeles Times

Parks officials say it was probably surprised too and merely acting in self-defense.

From Los Angeles Times

These more modern firearms became not only practical tools of war, crime or self-defense but symbolic objects in their own right.

From Salon

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