justify

Verb

justify (third-person singular simple present justifies, present participle justifying, simple past and past participle justified)

1. (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.
2. (transitive) To be a good reason behind a normally-unacceptable action; to warrant.
   • Nothing can justify your rude behaviour last night.
   • Unless the oppression is so extreme as to justify revolution, it would not justify the evil of breaking up a government, under an abstract constitutional right to do so.1861, Edward Everett, The Great Issues Now Before the Country, An oration delivered at the New York Academy of Music, July 4, 1861, New York: James G. Gregory, page 8
3. (transitive) 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.
4. (transitive) To absolve, and declare to be free of blame or sin.
   • I cannot justify whom the law condemns.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...
   • And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 13:39
5. (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.
   • And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 16:15
6. (transitive) To prove; to ratify; to confirm.
   • 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. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry...
   • […] 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.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...
7. 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.
8. To qualify (oneself) as a surety by taking oath to the ownership of sufficient property.
   • J'USTIFYING BAIL, practice, is the production of bail in court, who there justify' themselves against the exception of the plaintiff.1839, John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and of the Several States of the American Union, volume I, Philadelphia: T. & J.W. Johnson...