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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
self-defence
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
self-defence classes
▪ All nations have the right to self-defence.
▪ She claims she shot him in self-defence.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But developing a sense of this is essential to wellbeing; assertiveness training and learning self-defence can both help.
▪ Clearly the current situation in which the use of force is illegal except in self-defence is inadequate.
▪ It has the strange ability to blow itself up with either air or water as a means of self-defence.
▪ Its use in self-defence is entirely secondary and only employed as a last resort.
▪ Mr De Benedetti's line in self-defence is also rather familiar.
▪ The basic rules of self-defence are quite simple: keep your eyes open and you can usually avoid trouble.
▪ The latter picked up a crossbow, intending to use it in self-defence.
▪ The police claimed they had acted in self-defence.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Self-defence

Self-defence \Self`-de*fence"\, n. See Self-defense.

Wiktionary
self-defence

n. (alternative spelling of self-defense English)

WordNet
self-defence

n. the act of defending yourself [syn: self-defense, self-protection]

Wikipedia
Self-defence (Australia)

In the criminal law of Australia, self-defence is a legal defence to a charge of causing injury or death in defence of the person or, to a limited extent, property, or a partial defence to murder if the degree of force used was excessive.

Usage examples of "self-defence".

He kept his eye eagerly upon Triscoe, as if to follow his thought while he read, and keep him up to the work, and he ignored the Marches so entirely that they began in self-defence to talk with each other.

Madame Ko herself, specially tailored for bodyguards, whose primary aim was not self-defence, but defence of the principal.

It learns one to use his strength, his limbs and sinews, as he may be compelled to use them, in self-defence, in every future day of his life.

I went to bed somewhat perturbed, but I had the consoling thought that if I had killed a man I had done so to self-defence.

You have found weapons in my possession, but everyone is allowed to bear arms in self-defence.

Craig stared at him wordlessly as he went on, "The prime minister has accepted that all the acts of violence committed by either of us were acts of self-defence, everything from your killing of the Third Brigade troopers who were pursuing you on the Botswana border to the theft of the Super Frelon helicopter, and he has issued a full pardon-" Craig merely shook his head.

The supreme power in every community has the right of debarring every individual, and every subordinate society from self-defence, only because the supreme power is able to defend them.

For six weeks I beavered away at map-reading, marching smartly, and performing drill without a rifle, because doctors were not supposed to carry rifles or use them, although they were permitted to carry side-arms for self-defence.

The title refers to St Paul’s ‘I am a citizen of no mean city’, and the novel is the story of a simple and ordinary youth, Johnnie Stark, who is forced to learn the arts of self-defence, and who is so successful that he becomes known as the ‘Razor king’.

You have to have fucking feelings before detachment becomes a self-defence mechanism.

He is clearly entitled, as it were in self-defence, to use the same weapons in support of his own good cause, which the opponent uses against it, that is, to employ hypotheses, which are not intended to strengthen the arguments in favour of his own view, but only to show that the opponent knows far too little of the subject under discussion to flatter himself that he possesses any advantage over us, so far as speculative insight is concerned.

And had our legislators taken account of everything, I am of opinion that they would have visited ladies in such a case with no other penalty than such as they provide for those that offend in self-defence, seeing that a jealous husband does cunningly practise against the life of his lady, and most assiduously machinate her death.

Sodan, torn by this powerful invasion, lashed back in self-defence with a vicious blow at Damia who, he thought, had perpetrated the onslaught.

Rosemary rejoined more gently, "But when you are trying to talk nonsense, I must in self-defence bring you back to sanity.

Self-defence is taught more for fun and morale building than for any real purpose - a traffic warden has more need of it than an MI6 officer and physical violence is never deliberately used.