exculpatory
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From exculpate + -ory (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of or pertaining to, serving for’). Exculpate is derived from Medieval Latin exculpātus, perfect passive participle of exculpō (“to free from blame, exculpate”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘out, away’) + culpa (“defect, fault; crime”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp-). Cognate with Spanish exculpatorio.
Base: exculpate
Affixes: -ory
Inflected forms:
form: more exculpatory
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most exculpatory
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Tending to excuse or clear of wrongdoing.
pos: adj
examples: [I]t remains only to examine the Relevancy of the two general exculpatory Defences pled for the Pannells.
In the case of the King against Owen, the judge allowed the defendant to produce exculpatory evidence to the jury. In order to shew, that he had no malicious or traitorous intention in publishing the libel, with which he was charged, the court permitted him to plead, that during the rebellion, he had printed many papers in defence of the government and Hanoverian succession.
He [Alexander Pope] wrote an exculpatory letter to the Duke [James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos], who accepted of his excuſe, without believing his profeſſions.
[T]hey always used the most abject language, and the most humble tone and posture—"Please your honour,—and please your honour's honour," they knew must be repeated as a charm at the beginning and end of every equivocating, exculpatory, or supplicatory sentence— [...]
This apology, I am not unaware, has been advanced by some of our heroine's friends, and been admitted as exculpatory by others.
Facts, seen to be of an oppressive character, are sought to be got rid of, by the usual expedients of cross-examination, proof of facts of a contradictory, explanatory, or exculpatory tendency, or, in the last resort, attacks on the veracity of the witnesses.
Because the patronage is compulsory and bargaining strength is unequal, it is considered as against public policy to permit a professional bailee to accept fees for the safekeeping of goods and then by an exculpatory clause in the bailment contract to relieve itself of all liability—even for its own negligence.
[P]ointing to the fact that [Adolf] Hitler himself had been Austrian helped found the exculpatory myth that Germany had been the 'first country occupied by Nazism', as if the millions of people who had voted for and joined the Nazi party had been anything other than Germans.
Although the government refused to permit videotaped depositions of the three detainees, it conceded in its brief to the Fourth Circuit that it had an obligation under the Due Process Clause to turn over to [Zacarias] Moussaoui any exculpatory evidence in its possession, including any written summaries of exculpatory statements made by the detainees to their interrogators.
The goal of the investigation is to excavate and present evidence, incriminatory or exculpatory, directly relevant to the complaint issued when the case was first handed over.
These rationalisations are partly necessary to avoid panic or paralysis, but of course they also serve an exculpatory purpose.
Antonyms: criminative
criminatory
damning
incriminating
incriminatory
inculpatory
nonexculpatory
Translations: