rationalize

Verb

rationalize (third-person singular simple present rationalizes, present participle rationalizing, simple past and past participle rationalized)

1. (British, English, Oxford, US) To make something rational or more rational.
2. (British, English, Oxford, US) To justify a discreditable act, or irrational behaviour.
   • Vested interest, united ties, / landed gentry, rationalize. / Look who bought the myth. / By jingo, buy America.1987, “Exhuming McCarthy”, in Document (R.E.M. No. 5), performed by R.E.M.
3. (British, English, Oxford, US) To remove radicals, without changing the value of an expression or the roots of an equation.
4. (British, English, Oxford, US) To structure something along modern, efficient and systematic lines, or according to scientific principles. This often includes eliminating duplication and grouping like or similar items.
   • At our October meeting, Membership Director George Kaufer suggested rationalizing schedules on the Morris & Essex and Montclair-Boonton trains. He had prepared peak-hour schedules with a focus on ensuring that trains to Hoboken alternate more equally with those to New York, rather than having a...2024 11, Sally Jane Gellert, “Report from the Chair”, in Lackawanna Coalition Railgram