Word.ws English Dictionary

dexify

dexify verb: defend, explain, and/or justify.

Verb

dexify (third-person singular simple present dexifies, present participle dexifying, simple past and past participle dexified)

  1. Defend, explain, and/or justify.
    • This is a common masochistic sabotage that I describe with the acronym "dexify." When individuals defend, explain, or justify, they are unnecessarily supporting the reasons for their decision and giving others the opportunity to rebut their rationale.1986, David Brandt, Don't Stop Now, You're Killing Me: The Sadomasochism Game in Everyday Life and How Not to Play It, Poseidon Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 88
    • Powerful people don't dexify (defend, explain, or justify).1991, Roberta Jean Bryant, Stop Improving Yourself and Start Living, New World Library, →ISBN, →OL, page 65

Examples of dexify in a sentence

  • The reason for this is that when you ask "why" questions people feel defensive and have a tendency to "dexify" (defend, explain, justify) what they said.1991 March, David Farlow, “Principles of Rapport - Focus Group Moderation”, in Quirk's Marketing Research Review, volume 5:
  • We may “dexify” — try to defend, explain and justify — so that the angry person will stop being angry with us.1998 March 10, Robert Holman Coombs, Surviving Medical School, Thousand Oaks; London; New Delhi: Sage Publications, →ISBN, →OL, page 145:

Forms of dexify

third-person singular presentdexifies
present participledexifying
past participledexified
pastdexified

Origin of dexify

Blend of defend + explain + justify.

Questions about dexify

What does dexify mean?
Dexify means defend, explain, and/or justify.
How do you use dexify in a sentence?
The reason for this is that when you ask "why" questions people feel defensive and have a tendency to "dexify" (defend, explain, justify) what they said.
What part of speech is dexify?
Dexify is a verb.
What is the past tense of dexify?
The past tense of dexify is dexified.

Words near dexify in the dictionary

  1. dexibuprofen
  2. dexie
  3. dexies
  4. dexified
  5. dexifies
  6. dexify
  7. dexifying
  8. dexindoprofen
  9. Dexing
  10. dexiotropal
  11. dexiotropic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dexify (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “dexify.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dexify. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.