excuse

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb

To forgive; to pardon; to overlook.
To allow to leave, or release from any obligation.
To provide an excuse for; to justify.
To relieve of an imputation by apology or defense; to make apology for as not seriously evil; to ask pardon or indulgence for.

noun

An explanation designed to avoid or alleviate guilt or negative judgment; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault.
A defense to a criminal or civil charge wherein the accused party admits to doing acts for which legal consequences would normally be appropriate, but asserts that special circumstances relieve that party of culpability for having done those acts.
An example of something that is substandard or of inferior quality.

Pronunciation

ĭkskyo͞oz' /ɪkˈskjuːz/ /ɛksˈkjuːz/ /ɪksˈkjuz/ /ɛksˈkjuz/ en-us-excuse-verb.ogg ĭkskyo͞os' /ɪkˈskjuːs/ /ɛksˈkjuːs/ /ɪksˈkjus/ /ɛksˈkjus/ en-us-excuse-noun.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-excuse.wav

Word forms

excuse excuses excusing excused

Etymology

From Middle English excusen (verb) and excuse (noun), borrowed from Old French escuser (verb) and excuse (noun), from Latin excūsō, excūsāre (“to excuse, allege in excuse, literally, free from a charge”), from ex (“out”) + causa (“a charge”); see cause, accuse and recuse. Displaced native Old English lād (“an excuse”) and lādian (“to excuse”).

Synonyms

forgive let off the hook let pass pardon unguilt plead adduce cop-out pretext release clear justify tolerate overlook exempt discharge pretext bear with acquit exonerate absolve pretense vindicate

Antonyms

blame punish

Related words

rationalization

Derived words

blind excuse excusability excuse me excuse my français excuse my French excuse you excusingly please excuse my dear Aunt Sally 'scuse unexcused unexcusing XQs abuse excuse excusal excuseflation excuseless

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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