Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Justify

1. To prove or show to be just; to vindicate; to maintain or defend as conformable to law, right, justice, propriety, or duty. That to the height of this great argument i may assert eternal providence, And justify the ways of god to men. (Milton) Unless the oppression is so extreme as to justify revolution, it would not justify the evil of breaking up a government. (E. Everett)

2. To pronounce free from guilt or blame; to declare or prove to have done that which is just, right, proper, etc.; to absolve; to exonerate; to clear. I can not justify whom the law condemns. (Shak)

3. To treat as if righteous and just; to pardon; to exculpate; to absolve. By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (acts xiii. 39)

4. To prove; to ratify; to confirm.

5. To make even or true, as lines of type, by proper spacing; to adjust, as type. See justification.

Synonym: to defend, maintain, vindicate, excuse, exculpate, absolve, exonerate.

Origin: f. Justifier, L. Justificare; justus just _ -ficare (in comp) to make. See just, and -fy.