Word.ws English Dictionary

explaining away

explaining away is the present participle and gerund of explain away.

Meaning of explain away

Verb

explain away (third-person singular simple present explains away, present participle explaining away, simple past and past participle explained away)

  1. (transitive) To dismiss or minimize (a problem, etc.) by explanation.
    • He couldn't just explain away all of his problems.

Questions about explaining away

What is explaining away the present participle and gerund of?
Explaining away is the present participle and gerund of explain away.

Words near explaining away in the dictionary

  1. explainifies
  2. explainify
  3. explainifying
  4. explainin'
  5. explaining
  6. explaining away
  7. explainingly
  8. explainings
  9. explains
  10. explains away
  11. explaint

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: explaining away (page history and authors); explain away (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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