Definition of "justify"

justify

/ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪ/

verb
third-person singular simple present justifies, present participle justifying, simple past and past participle justified
1. (transitive) To provide an acceptable explanation for.
  Quotations
  What in me is darkIllumine, what is low raise and support;That to the highth of this great ArgumentI may assert th’ Eternal Providence,And justifie the wayes of God to men.
  1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  Like all public expenditure, Access for All has to compete with other deserving demands. For example, how can you justify spending a couple of million pounds installing lifts at a station such as Achnasheen, which has 2,420 annual users, when that sum would buy a life-saving machine for a hospital? How do you decide on a minimum number of annual station users to justify that expenditure?
  2023 August 23, Anthony Lambert, “Expanding the family and disabled markets”, in RAIL, number 990, page 53
2. (transitive) To be a good, acceptable reason for; warrant.
  Quotations
  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.
4. (transitive) To absolve, and declare to be free of blame or sin.
  Quotations
  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 Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii]
  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, […], Acts 13:39
5. (reflexive) To give reasons for one’s actions; to make an argument to prove that one is in the right.
  Quotations
  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, […], Luke 16:15
  […] I was equally unable to justify myself and unwilling to acknowledge my errors […]
  1848, Anne Brontë, “Chapter 13”, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall‎
6. To prove; to ratify; to confirm.
  Quotations
  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 knowledgeShe is thy very princess.
  c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon, […], published 1609, [Act V, scene 1]
  […] sayMy wife’s a hobby-horse, deserves a nameAs rank as any flax-wench that puts toBefore 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, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]
7. (law) 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. (law) To qualify (oneself) as a surety by taking oath to the ownership of sufficient property.
  Quotations
  JUSTIFYING 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, page 557

Definition of "justify"

justify

verb

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