Definition of "justify" []

• To demonstrate or prove to be just, right, or valid: justified each budgetary expense as necessary; anger that is justified by the circumstances. (verb-transitive)
• To declare free of blame; absolve. (verb-transitive)
• To free (a human) of the guilt and penalty attached to grievous sin. Used of God. (verb-transitive)
• Law To demonstrate sufficient legal reason for (an action taken). (verb-transitive)
• Law To prove to be qualified as a bondsman. (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.

• "But our English verb to be right had never taken a Hiphil form, or power, and for this reason, perhaps, the translators passed over, in many instances, to the Latin word justify, adopting that; though they sometimes manufacture a phrase that carries the causative meaning."
• "The same tendency to justify from the surface and not trust the public to understand the depth has been visible in President Obama's partial explanations of Afghanistan."
• "While hard to justify from a financial point of view, from a strategic point of view this makes sense."