excuse
To forgive; to pardon; to overlook.
Example
“I excused him his transgressions.”
Other meanings
To allow to leave, or release from any obligation.
“May I be excused from the table?”
To provide an excuse for; to justify.
“You know he shouldn't have done it, so don't try to excuse his behavior!”
Synonyms
- pardon
Related words
- blind excuse
- excuse me
- excuse you
- excusability
- unexcused
- XQs
- excusingly
- unexcusing
Example sentences
Word history
From Latin "excuso" (excūsō, excūsāre).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “excuse” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.