Definition of "alibi" []

• Law A form of defense whereby a defendant attempts to prove that he or she was elsewhere when the crime in question was committed. (noun)
• Law The fact of having been elsewhere when a crime in question was committed. (noun)
• Usage Problem An explanation offered to avoid blame or justify action; an excuse. (noun)
• To make an excuse for oneself. (verb-intransitive)
• To make an excuse for (another). (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And you know, when we ` re talking about his story, that ` s one of the things that ` s really captured, I think, the attention of people around here is it ` s so absurd that somebody ` s-- if you want to use the term alibi, would be that they left their pregnant wife by the side of the road."
• "Maddening though this habit of searching for displaced selves might be in a traveling companion—the word "alibi" literally means "elsewhere"—it is a pleasure in an essayist."
• "What this is, is just what I call the alibi tour and to go out there and to plant reasonable doubt before the trial."