Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | English word EXCUSE

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Definitions of EXCUSE

1. To relieve of an imputation by apology or defense; to make apology for as not seriously evil; to ask pardon or indulgence for.
2. (transitive) To forgive; to pardon.
3. (transitive) To allow to leave, or release from any obligation.
4. (transitive) To provide an excuse for; to explain, with the aim of alleviating guilt or negative judgement.
5. (countable, uncountable) Explanation designed to avoid or alleviate guilt or negative judgment; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault.
6. (legal) 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.
7. (often with preceding negative adjective, especially sorry, poor or lame) An example of something that is substandard or of inferior quality.

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Examples of Using EXCUSE in a Sentence

• The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to a psychiatric disease at the time of the criminal act.
• Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction.
• So whereas valour and excuse appeared as in modern printing, have and upon were printed as "haue" and "vpon".
• The rebel Seleucid general and ruler of Media, Timarchus, who has distinguished himself by defending Media against the emergent Parthians, treats Demetrius I's violent accession to the Seleucid throne as the excuse to declare himself an independent king and extend his realm from Media into Babylonia.
• Philip II of Macedon decides to attack the Scythians, using as an excuse their reluctance to allow Philip to dedicate a statue of Heracles at the Danube estuary.
• Present-day academic sabbaticals typically excuse the grantee from day-to-day teaching and departmental duties, though progress on research is expected to continue, if not increase, while away.
• Elam refuses to extradite an Aramaean prince, giving the king Ashurbanipal of Assyria an excuse to invade the country.
• The DR&MR was now under permanent lease to the Chicago & North Western, who wanted any excuse to squeeze out Blair if it could be to their benefit.
• The first wagon bridge across the Cimarron River was completed July 31, 1900, which was the excuse for a big party that lasted until the wee hours of the next morning.
• Robert and Roger found the excuse to invade Sicily after the request for help from Ibn al-Thumna, emir of Catania, who was at war with his brother-in-law, Ibn al-Hawwas, emir of Agrigento.
• Enroll to vote, and vote at all elections and referendums (unless there is a reasonable excuse such as a religious objection, being overseas, or illness on polling day).
• This principle could be paraphrased as follows: "It is not an acceptable excuse to say 'I was just following my superior's orders'".
• According to Evelyn Waugh, it provided a convenient pretext for those in Elizabeth's court, looking for an excuse to do so, to persecute Roman Catholics, and they took full advantage of it.
• Thus, society approves of the purpose or motives underpinning some actions or the consequences flowing from them (see Robinson), and distinguishes those where the behavior cannot be approved but some excuse may be found in the characteristics of the defendant, e.
• In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental functions were "diminished" or impaired.
• In criminal law, irresistible impulse is a defense by excuse, in this case some sort of insanity, in which the defendant argues that they should not be held criminally liable for their actions that broke the law, because they could not control those actions, even if they knew them to be wrong.
• Sometimes the concept is referred to as the abuse excuse, in particular by the critics of the idea that guilty people may use past victimization to diminish the responsibility for their crimes.
• He opposed the arbitrary acts of James II until his enemies found an excuse to neutralize him; after an imagined insult by a Colonel Colepepper, Cavendish struck his opponent and was immediately fined the enormous sum of £30,000.
• Langham was upset at the inclusion of the sketch, which gave the team and producer John Lloyd the excuse for his replacement by support player Griff Rhys Jones.
• Other sinecures operate as legal fictions, such as the British office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, used as a legal excuse for resigning from Parliament.

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