qualify

Borrowed from Middle French qualifier (“to qualify”). Equivalent to quality +‎ -fy.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɑl.ɪ.faɪ/, enPR: kwŏlʹĭ-fī
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɒl.ɪ.faɪ/, enPR: kwŏlʹĭ-fī
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈkwæl.ɪ.faɪ/, enPR: kwălʹĭ-fī
• Hyphenation: qual‧i‧fy

• Audio (US):

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qualify (third-person singular simple present qualifies, present participle qualifying, simple past and past participle qualified)

1. To describe or characterize something by listing its qualities.
   • 1999, Matthew C. Bagger, Religious Experience, Justification, and History, →ISBN, page 62:

     Descartes's methodism with its regulative criterion leads him to explicitly deny that accidentally true belief qualifies as knowledge.

   • 2007 February 11, Jay Romano, “Triggering a Rent Increase”, in The New York Times‎:

     But if it is done in conjunction with repointing of the building, the work would probably qualify as a major capital improvement.

2. To make someone, or to become competent or eligible for some position or task.
   • 1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T F E, editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:

     He had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in possession.

   • 2011 September 2, “Wales 2-1 Montenegro”, in BBC‎:

     Wales claimed their first points in Euro 2012 qualifying with a morale-boosting victory in Cardiff over former Group G joint leaders Montenegro.

3. To certify or license someone for something.
4. To modify, limit, restrict or moderate something; especially to add conditions or requirements for an assertion to be true.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 109”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. , London: By G Eld for T T and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     O! never say that I was false of heart,
     Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify

5. (now rare) To mitigate, alleviate (something); to make less disagreeable.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     he balmes and herbes thereto applyde, / And euermore with mighty spels them charmd, / That in short space he has them qualifyde, / And him restor'd to health, that would haue algates dyde.

6. To compete successfully in some stage of a competition and become eligible for the next stage.
7. To give individual quality to; to modulate; to vary; to regulate.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: , 2nd edition, London: A Miller, for Edw Dod and Nath Ekins, , →OCLC:

     It hath no larynx […] to qualify the sound.

8. (juggling) To throw and catch each object at least twice.

   to qualify seven balls you need at least fourteen catches

qualify

1. (juggling) An instance of throwing and catching each prop at least twice.