justify Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb show to be reasonable or provide adequate ground for
    warrant.
    • The emergency does not warrant all of us buying guns
    • The end justifies the means
  2. verb show to be right by providing justification or proof
    vindicate.
    • vindicate a claim
  3. verb defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning
    rationalize; apologise; rationalise; excuse; apologize.
    • rationalize the child's seemingly crazy behavior
    • he rationalized his lack of success
  4. verb let off the hook
    absolve; free.
    • I absolve you from this responsibility
  5. verb adjust the spaces between words
    • justify the margins

WordNet

Jus"ti*fy transitive verb
Etymology
F. justifier, L. justificare; justus just + -ficare (in comp.) to make. See Just, a., and -fy.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Justified ; present participle & verbal noun Justifying
Definitions
  1. To prove or show to be just; to vindicate; to maintain or defend as conformable to law, right, justice, propriety, or duty.
    That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal providence, And justify the ways of God to men. Milton.
    Unless the oppression is so extreme as to justify revolution, it would not justify the evil of breaking up a government. E. Everett.
  2. To pronounce free from guilt or blame; to declare or prove to have done that which is just, right, proper, etc.; to absolve; to exonerate; to clear.
    I can not justify whom the law condemns. Shak.
  3. (Theol.) To treat as if righteous and just; to pardon; to exculpate; to absolve.
    By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Acts xiii. 39.
  4. To prove; to ratify; to confirm. Obs. Shak.
  5. (Print.) To make even or true, as lines of type, by proper spacing; to adjust, as type. See Justification, 4. Syn. -- To defend; maintain; vindicate; excuse; exculpate; absolve; exonerate.
Jus"ti*fy intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. (Print.) To form an even surface or true line with something else; to fit exactly. esp. in printing, to align (text) at the left (left justify) or right (right justify) margins of a column or page, or at both margins
  2. (Law) To take oath to the ownership of property sufficient to qualify one's self as bail or surety.

Webster 1913