justify
Etymology
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.001
Etymology
From Middle English justifien, from Old French justifier, from Late Latin justificare, from Latin justus, iustus ("just") + ficare ("make"), from facere, equivalent to just + -ify.
Pronunciation- IPA: /ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪ/
justify (justifies, present participle justifying; simple past and past participle justified)
- (transitive) To provide an acceptable explanation for.
- How can you justify spending so much money on clothes?
- Paying too much for car insurance is not justified.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:
- What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert th’ Eternal Providence,
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
- (transitive) To be a good, acceptable reason for; warrant.
- Nothing can justify your rude behaviour last night.
- (transitive, typography) To arrange (text) on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned.
- The text will look better justified.
- (transitive) To absolve, and declare to be free of blame or sin.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene iii]:
- I cannot justify whom the law condemns.
- (reflexive) To give reasons for one’s actions; to make an argument to prove that one is in the right.
- She felt no need to justify herself for deciding not to invite him.
- (transitive) To prove; to ratify; to confirm.
- c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene 1] ↗:
- She is not dead at Tarsus, as she should have been,
By savage Cleon: she shall tell thee all;
When thou shalt kneel, and justify in knowledge
She is thy very princess.
- c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:
- […] say
My wife’s a hobby-horse, deserves a name
As rank as any flax-wench that puts to
Before her troth-plight: say’t and justify’t.
- (legal) To show (a person) to have had a sufficient legal reason for an act that has been made the subject of a charge or accusation.
- (legal) To qualify (oneself) as a surety by taking oath to the ownership of sufficient property.
- French: justifier
- German: rechtfertigen
- Italian: giustificare
- Portuguese: justificar
- Russian: опра́вдывать
- Spanish: legitimar, justificar, explicar
- French: justifier
- German: rechtfertigen
- Italian: giustificare
- Portuguese: justificar
- Russian: объясня́ть
- Spanish: legitimar, justificar, merecer, meritar, ameritar
- French: justifier
- German: ausrichten, justieren
- Italian: giustificare
- Portuguese: justificar
- Russian: выра́внивать
- Spanish: justificar
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.001
