justify

English

Alternative forms

• justifie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English justifien, from Old French justifier, from Late Latin justificare (“make just”), from Latin justus, iustus (“just”) + ficare (“make”), from facere, equivalent to just +‎ -ify.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪ/
• Hyphenation: jus‧ti‧fy

• Audio (US)

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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.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     What in me is dark
     Illumine, what is low raise and support;
     That to the highth of this great Argument
     I may assert th’ Eternal Providence,
     And justifie the wayes of God to men.

   • 2023 August 23, Anthony Lambert, “Expanding the family and disabled markets”, in RAIL, number 990, page 53:

     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?

2. (transitive) To be a good, acceptable reason for; warrant.

   Nothing can justify your rude behaviour last night.

   • 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:

     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.

3. (transitive, typography) 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.
   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     I cannot justify whom the law condemns.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Acts 13:39:

     And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Luke 16:15:

     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.

   • 1848, Anne Brontë, “Chapter 13”, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall‎:

     […] I was equally unable to justify myself and unwilling to acknowledge my errors […]

6. (transitive) To prove; to ratify; to confirm.
   • 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, →OCLC, [Act V, scene 1]:

     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. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     […] 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.

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.
   • 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:

     JUSTIFYING BAIL, practice, is the production of bail in court, who there justify themselves against the exception of the plaintiff.

Derived terms

Related terms

• -fy
• just
• justification
• justifiable
• justifiably
• unjustified

Translations