(v. t.) To free from accusation, or the imputation of fault or blame; to clear from guilt; to release from a charge; to justify by extenuating a fault; to exculpate; to absolve; to acquit.
(v. t.) To pardon, as a fault; to forgive entirely, or to admit to be little censurable, and to overlook; as, we excuse irregular conduct, when extraordinary circumstances appear to justify it.
(v. t.) To regard with indulgence; to view leniently or to overlook; to pardon.
(v. t.) To free from an impending obligation or duty; hence, to disengage; to dispense with; to release by favor; also, to remit by favor; not to exact; as, to excuse a forfeiture.
(v. t.) To relieve of an imputation by apology or defense; to make apology for as not seriously evil; to ask pardon or indulgence for.
(v. t.) The act of excusing, apologizing, exculpating, pardoning, releasing, and the like; acquittal; release; absolution; justification; extenuation.
(v. t.) That which is offered as a reason for being excused; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or irregular deportment; apology; as, an excuse for neglect of duty; excuses for delay of payment.
(v. t.) That which excuses; that which extenuates or justifies a fault.
Example Sentences:
(1) As he told us: 'Individual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves.'
(2) We need to stop making excuses for them: But it is up to the state to close the loopholes Yes, the state must work continually to tighten and simplify the tax regime, which is a deliberate mess keeping an entire industry of accounting firms and tax lawyers fed.
(3) "With hindsight," he writes, "it was a trumped-up excuse for radical activism for its own sake."
(4) The Frenchman has been excused from duty at Everton on Saturday on compassionate grounds and the club have put no time frame on his possible return.
(5) Becton’s lawyer, Hannah Stroud, told a separate news conference that stress was no excuse for Casebolt’s actions and “the manner in which Ms Becton was treated was excessive, inappropriate and without cause” and a civil rights violation.
(6) Well, Machado put those skills on display on Sunday, and this is an excuse to bring you his ridiculous play against the Yankees.
(7) This prompted an angry response from the bill's sponsors who accused opponents of using border security as an excuse to block any immigration reform.
(8) This lovely coastal route also gives you an excuse to hop on the Skye ferry, which plies its way over the narrows to Kylerhea from the start of this walk.
(9) I think the French manager told him ‘it’s very difficult to watch you when you’re not playing for PSG’ – he hasn’t got that excuse now.” Palace are also well worth watching.
(10) I'm not a believer, and my only problem with artistic licence is when the phrase is used as an excuse to oversimplify a work to improve its marketability.
(11) Nothing in this context can be soft-pedalled and excused.
(12) He continues: “And a ‘no excuses’ culture where excellence is the norm.” Police were called by a member of the public shortly after 11am after reports of a disturbance outside the school in George V Avenue, where a number of parents and pupils had gathered.
(13) The current IRS controversy does not excuse sham political organizations masquerading as social welfare organizations, and shines a light on the critical need for campaign spending disclosure legislation.
(14) David Winnick, the MP for Walsall North, said: "None of [May's] excuses can explain away the sheer incompetence and shambles that have occurred on her watch."
(15) Sessions are scheduled regularly throughout the year and take place outside the hospital; interns are excused from their service responsibilities for the duration of the meeting.
(16) "There is no excuse to cut back on services that patients depend on.
(17) His team had been working on a protest-themed game for the past two years, and the frenzy surrounding Occupy Central gave them an excuse to release a prototype.
(18) After years of on-and-off e-dating, in which I've met 150-200 women, fallen in love with one and invented extravagant excuses to extricate myself from awkward encounters with countless others, you might think I'd be tired of it all.
(19) "We are always followed by a crowd of people – not journalists, but people who are following us and track our every move, and look for any excuse to detain us."
(20) The bar on religious weddings was meant to reassure the faithful, but the Church of England has twisted the weird and novel distinction between religious and secular marriages into an excuse to oppose the whole reform , while it is left to Labour's Yvette Cooper to speak for liberal Jews and Quakers who resent the continuing bar on them offering ceremonial equality.
Pretext
Definition:
(n.) Ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive; pretense; disguise.
Example Sentences:
(1) • In an emergency UN security council meeting, the US ambassador accused Russia of "looking for a pretext to invade" Ukraine.
(2) "I urge both the monks and the lay Tibetans of the area not to do anything that might be used as a pretext by the local authorities to massively crack down on them.
(3) "Financial aid for this group was usually provided from London under the pretext of charitable donations.
(4) Naureen Shah, director of Amnesty International USA’s security and human rights programme, acknowledged the need for governments to assess their approach in the aftermath of major attacks but said: “What we don’t want to see is government using the Paris attacks as a pretext for extending surveillance authorities or pushing back against reforms that even the government acknowledged as necessary.” Some of the hawkish responses to events in Paris “raise a question of whether there’s an exploiting of public fear and anger and anxiety to push legislation through”, she added.
(5) They also suggest that although Putin was using the rights of the Russian minority in Lithuania and Latvia as a pretext to cause trouble, the rights of Russian minorities needed protection.
(6) The first 80-page file on Smith compiled in 1970 contained allegations from eight men that they were abused as teenagers by Smith on the pretexts of either a medical examination or punishment for misbehaviour.
(7) All over Europe people are being forced by national governments and the EU to suffer the most extreme neoliberal policies under the pretext of solving this crisis,” she said.
(8) In the Brezhnev-era Soviet Union, writers and activists were commonly detained on mental health pretexts.
(9) Amnesty International has called on the Egyptian government not to use Barakat’s death “as a pretext for trampling upon human rights”.
(10) The loss of Section 215 will deprive the NSA of the legal pretext for its bulk domestic phone records dragnet.
(11) Pope Francis has spoken out against those who use religion as a pretext for violence and oppression, in his clearest denunciation yet of the Islamic state militants murdering their way across Syria and Iraq.
(12) "If you listen to what Lloyds said in 2011 when they took the initial £3.2bn charge – that was used for a pretext for making a clawback on 12 executives.
(13) Physical illness may give rise to feelings of hopelessness to which the physician must stay attuned; the patient may also use physical illness as a pretext for seeking help for deeper things that trouble him.
(14) As the White House struggled to impose pressure on Putin, Kerry accused the Russian leader of acting “in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped-up pretext”.
(15) The idea that it could carry on without even the pretext that I was involved in CND when I was a member of parliament is completely and utterly outrageous.” Ruddock said she has written to May today demanding answers and would write again to whoever was the new home secretary after the election.
(16) The pretexts — that Queensland has no house of review, and that the state is in receipt of Commonwealth money — are not new developments.
(17) One week later a 50-minute class in acupuncture and Chinese medicine was given in a community health class to one of the two pretexted groups and one of the two untested groups.
(18) The institute said in a statement: "Contrary to its claims to be a marine wildlife conservation group, in reality [Sea Shepherd] are dedicated to fundraising and to spread violence under pretext of protecting whales.
(19) Their meeting occurred after a series of events that point to this.” Netanyahu made the claim – which he also made in 2012 – to illustrate what he said was the Palestinian history of using holy sites in Jerusalem as pretexts for committing acts of violence against Jews.
(20) "May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman, above all to the right to life and the right of everyone to religious freedom," he said.