# 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: /ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪ/
* Hyphenation: jus‧ti‧fy
* Audio (US):(file)

### Verb

justify (third-person singular simple present justifies, present participle justifying, simple past and past participle justified)
* (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], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →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?
* (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.
* (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.
* (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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]: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.
* (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 […]
* (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,: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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:[…] 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.
* (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.
* (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

* justifying space
* self-justify
* the ends justify the means

#### Related terms

* -fy
* just
* justification
* justifiable
* justifiably
* unjustified

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.