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formable to law, justice, right, or duty; defense; vindication; support; as, arguments in justification of the prisoner's conduct; his disobedience admits justification. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue. Shak.

To respond to satisfactorily; to meet successfully by way of explanation, argument, or justification, and the like; to refute. No man was able to answer him a word. Matt. xxii. 46. These shifts refuted, answer thine appellant. Milton. The reasoning was not and could not be answered. Macaulay.

Something said or written in defense or justification of what appears to others wrong, or of what may be liable to disapprobation; justification; as, Tertullian's Apology for Christianity. It is not my intention to make an apology for my poem; some will think it needs no excuse, and others will receive none. Dryden.…

Justification; warrant. Wilt thou be glass wherein it shall discern Authority for sin, warrant for blame. Shak.

sus belli, an event or combination of events which is a cause war, or may be alleged as a justification of war. -- Casus fortuitus, an accident against which due prudence could not have provided. See Act of God, under Act. -- Casus omissus, a case not provided for by the statute.

Protecting plea; vindication; justification. Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense. Acts xxii. 1.

n orientation was as politically unstable as a domino standing on edge. Used by some as a justification for American involvement in the Vietnam war, 1964-1972.

e Church of England, and in the Protestant Episcopal Church, which holds the doctrine of "Justification by Faith alone"; the Low Church party. The term is also applied to other religion bodies not regarded as orthodox. Evangelical Alliance, an alliance for mutual strengthening and common work, comprising Christians of…

ogizing, exculpating, pardoning, releasing, and the like; acquittal; release; absolution; justification; extenuation. Pleading so wisely in excuse of it. Shak.

because; introducing a reason of something before advanced, a cause, motive, explanation, justification, or the like, of an action related or a statement made. It is logically nearly equivalent to since, or because, but connects less closely, and is sometimes used as a very general introduction to something suggested b…

Not excusable; not admitting excuse or justification; as, inexcusable folly. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. Rom. ii. 1.

With a degree of guilt or folly beyond excuse or justification. Inexcusably obstinate and perverse. Jortin.

s instrumental; anything used as a means; medium; agency. The instrumentality of faith in justification. Bp. Burnet. The discovery of gunpowder developed the science of attack and defense in a new instrumentality. J. H. Newman.

To make even or true, as lines of type, by proper spacing; to adjust, as type. See Justification, 4.

ntention about words; a war of words. The discussion concerning the meaning of the word " justification" . . . has largely been a mere logomachy. L. Abbott.

an affront or an injury. Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Rom. iv. 25. I have given my opinion against the authority of two great men, but I hope without offense to their memories. Dryden.

That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification; an excuse; an apology. "Necessity, the tyrant's plea." Milton. No plea must serve; 't is cruelty to spare. Denham.

e; as, the quirks of a pettifogger. "Some quirk or . . . evasion." Spenser. We ground the justification of our nonconformity on dark subtilties and intricate quirks. Barrow.

The state of being right with God; justification; the work of Christ, which is the ground justification. There are two kinds of Christian righteousness: the one without us, which we have by imputation; the other in us, which consisteth of faith, hope, and charity, and other Christian virtues. Hooker. Only for the right…

One who maintains that faith alone, without works, is sufficient for justification; -- opposed to nullifidian. Hammond.