# castle doctrine

## noun

variants
or less commonly castle rule

plural castle doctrines also castle rules

law

**:**a legal rule or doctrine that a lawful occupant of a home has no duty to retreat from an intruder when acting in self-defense or in the defense of another in the reasonable belief that they are in danger of death or bodily harm

And when three people broke in about 3 a.m., Whitfield shot one of them, leaving the man dead on the kitchen floor. Police investigated the shooting, but Whitfield never really faced the prospect of prosecution. Missouri's expanded self-defense law, passed in 2007 and known as the castle doctrine, not only protected him from being charged but meant he couldn't be sued over his actions that night.—Kim Bell

After Florida's passage of a castle doctrine law in 2005, 31 states followed suit and now protect the right of homeowners to defend their property from intruders.—Patrik Jonsson

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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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