duty to retreat

noun

law

: a duty to use reasonable efforts to escape or retreat from an attacker before using force to defend oneself

When threatened by an aggressor outside their homes, people in New York, under current law, have a duty to retreat—if possible—before resorting to force.

—Joe Mahoney

[Samuel L.] Davis filed a motion Monday asking a judge to prohibit the commonwealth from arguing Fisher had a duty to retreat. Davis contends Fisher was acting in self-defense, and he expects prosecutors may argue that Fisher's use of force was unreasonable and unlawful because he did not first attempt to retreat.

—Susy Kelly

Examples of duty to retreat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

While 30 states have legislatively enacted stand your ground statutes like Florida’s, eight others implement stand your ground through case law and jury instructions that effectively remove the duty to retreat. —Caroline Light, The Conversation, 17 Nov. 2025

Stand your ground laws remove the duty to retreat, allowing individuals to legally defend themselves in public areas. —Christopher Rudolph, PEOPLE, 21 Oct. 2025

There is also an exception to the duty to retreat principle. —Jasmine Laws, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 Oct. 2025

The Democrats defeated a separate bill on guns, House Bill 7070, that would have treated churches similar to a home regarding a duty to retreat. —Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 8 Apr. 2025

But a duty to retreat when in public exists in many states. —Cedric Dark, WIRED, 14 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1878, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for duty to retreat

• amit
• athlete
• backseat
• blackfeet
• broadsheet
• browbeat
• buckwheat
• compete
• compleat
• complete
• conceit
• concrete