51Թ

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View synonyms for

self-defense

[ 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.


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Other 51Թ Forms

  • -·ڱs adjective
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51Թ History and Origins

Origin of self-defense1

First recorded in 1645–55
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

But he insisted she had come at him with a knife and that he stabbed her in self-defense.

From

When police arrested Anthony, the report says, he began "crying hysterically" and saying it was self-defense.

From

He has argued that Gascón’s analysis of the case was paper-thin, questioned the validity of their self-defense claims and repeatedly insisted the brothers had lied about the circumstances of the shooting.

From

Balian on Friday argued the brothers repeatedly coached witnesses at their earlier trials to lie about the threat they faced from their parents in order to bolster their self-defense argument.

From

He questioned whether their self-defense claims were valid — their “purported actual fear that their mother and their father were going to kill them the night of the murders.”

From

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self-defenceself-deliverance