Justify
['dʒʌstɪfaɪ] or ['dʒʌstə'fai]
Definition
(verb.) adjust the spaces between words; 'justify the margins'.
(verb.) show to be right by providing justification or proof; 'vindicate a claim'.
(verb.) show to be reasonable or provide adequate ground for; 'The emergency does not warrant all of us buying guns'; 'The end justifies the means'.
Inputed by Dustin--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) To prove or show to be just; to vindicate; to maintain or defend as conformable to law, right, justice, propriety, or duty.
(a.) 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.
(a.) To treat as if righteous and just; to pardon; to exculpate; to absolve.
(a.) To prove; to ratify; to confirm.
(a.) To make even or true, as lines of type, by proper spacing; to adjust, as type. See Justification, 4.
(v. i.) To form an even surface or true line with something else; to fit exactly.
(v. i.) To take oath to the ownership of property sufficient to qualify one's self as bail or surety.
Checker: Lucy
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Vindicate, warrant, defend, maintain, exculpate, excuse, exonerate, set right.[2]. (Theol.) Absolve, acquit, free from sin, clear from guilt.[3]. (Printing.) Adjust.
Editor: Vanessa
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Clear, vindicate, exonerate, defend, absolve, excuse
ANT:Condemn, censure, convict, criminate
Inputed by Annie
Definition
v.t. to make just: to prove or show to be just or right: to vindicate: to absolve:—pr.p. jus′tifying; pa.p. jus′tified.—adj. Justifī′able that may be justified or defended.—n. Justifī′ableness.—adv. Justifī′ably.—n. Justificā′tion vindication: absolution: a plea of sufficient reason for.—adjs. Jus′tificātive Jus′tificātory having power to justify.—n. Jus′tifier one who defends or vindicates: he who pardons and absolves from guilt and punishment.—Justification by faith the doctrine that men are justified by faith in Christ.
Typist: Nola
Examples
- As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify the hansom. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- But it will be still more difficult to fulfil the second condition, requisite to justify this system. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Appearances did not justify an assault where we were. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- The movements of the enemy may justify, or even make it your imperative duty, to cut loose from your base, and strike for the interior to aid Sherman. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- She still preserved her proud manner, but there was a touch of softness in her voice, as she answered: 'I justify nothing. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- To make a direct attack from either wing would cause a slaughter of our men that even success would not justify. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- The ephemeral nature of the vast majority of hypotheses and the dange r to progress of accepting an unverified assumption justify the demand for demonstrative e vidence. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- His judgment, activity, and consummate bravery, justified their choice. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Virtue is free, and as a man honours or dishonours her he will have more or less of her; the responsibility is with the chooser--God is justified. Plato. The Republic.
- If it is designedly done, they cannot be justified; but I have no idea of there being so much design in the world as some persons imagine. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- Mr. Fairlie had simply justified my expectations--and there was an end of it. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- The right of the crown to those countries described by the author is justified. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- She perceives that it is justified. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Julia might be justified in so doing by the hints of Mrs. Grant, inclined to credit what she wished, and Maria by the hints of Mr. Crawford himself. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- It was the evil in the world that set Leibniz the task of justifying the ways of God to man. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- These are reasons justifying the assault. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- I can no longer think of you to your prejudice--I am but too much absorbed in justifying you. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- With one hand across his breast and the other on the easy chair, Riah, without justifying himself, waited for further questioning. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Mankind has certainly come nearer to justifying Mr. Chesterton's observation that one of its favorite games is called Cheat the Prophet. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- We have had economists who set out with the preconceived idea of justifying the factory system. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- He stood tall on the hearth, a figure justifying his mother's unconcealed pride. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- The principle is not what justifies an activity, for the principle is but another name for the continuity of the activity. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- However, it justifies me, I suppose, in going into mourning. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Then you don't believe that the Bible justifies slavery, said Miss Ophelia. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- That is what gives understanding, and justifies the observation that the intuitions of scientific discovery and the artist's perceptions are closely related. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Without supposing any change in human quality, but merely its release from the present system of inordinate waste, history justifies this expectation. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- What you say now justifies my own view, said Lydgate. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He fancies that some abstract principle justifies his course of action without recognizing that his principle needs justification. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Inputed by Bruno