I. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a reasonable explanation/excuse
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He tried to think of a reasonable excuse.
be glad of an opportunity/chance/excuse to do sth
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They were glad of the chance to finally get some sleep.
concocted...excuse
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John concocted an elaborate excuse for being late.
excuse
▪
You must have a valid excuse for any absence.
flimsy excuse
▪
a flimsy excuse
forgive/excuse/pardon the pun (= used to show you know you are making a pun )
lame excuse/explanation
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She gave some lame excuse about missing the bus.
staple excuses
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Marty’s staple excuses
weak excuse
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She’s washing her hair? That sounds like a weak excuse !
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
please
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However, you must now please excuse me.
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So please excuse this disjointed and probably feeble-minded letter which is such a bad answer to your very nice one.
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But, Charl, please excuse us while we say a little prayer for Jack.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a cast-iron excuse/alibi/guarantee etc
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According to Ken Harris, she has a cast-iron alibi.
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Do not expect a cast-iron guarantee of success.
pardon/excuse my French
stock excuse/question/remark etc
the same old story/excuse etc
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For those who claimed to have seen or heard it all before, racism was always the same old story.
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It's always the same old story.
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It seems to be the same old story.
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Oh, you know - it's the same old story.
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Sounds like the same old story really.
threadbare excuse/argument/joke etc
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Excuse my brother if he talks too much, he's rather excitable.
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Can I be excused from swimming today? I've got a cold.
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I'll try to get them to excuse me from the meeting.
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I'm sorry, but that explanation doesn't excuse what he did.
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I didn't realize this was a formal party, so I hope you can excuse my appearance.
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Kinney asked to be excused from his duties on the board.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But it is worse it's also a history of mechanical idealism excusing criminal stupidity.
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Constance detected a change in the atmosphere as Giancarlo excused himself and walked down the steps to greet his last guest.
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He does nothing to hide or excuse Jacob's cruelty.
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He doesn't excuse mistakes, he simply won't allow them.
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I got the hiccups, excuse me.
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My accident and stunned expression seemed to excuse me, however.
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Penalties are negotiable, so always try to get penalty charges excused.
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She excuses herself a moment to prepare a tray of little snacks they urge her not to trouble herself to prepare.
II. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
feeble
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Before she could announce me, I retrieved the coat, muttered a few feeble excuses , and ran.
good
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Pantomime - what a good excuse to forget your age and join in with the booing, hissing, singing and hilarity.
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This means made without good cause or excuse and could extend to a reckless statement.
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Finally, he decided to make good on the excuse he'd used to leave early and connected with the dish system.
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I think it a good excuse to get away from his family.
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What is your best excuse for a motorway policeman who has just caught you speeding?
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And he says our own economic worries aren't a good enough excuse .
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You may consider that you have a good excuse for late submission and decide to appeal.
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But it is a good excuse for us to send out a patrol of our own.
lame
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Stephen made lame excuses , saying Edward was jet-lagged and preferred to stay in his room.
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It was a lame excuse , and I bluntly told him that he owed it to posterity to relate his story.
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But every pretty maid had left, some without notice, others picking lame excuses from a hat.
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It sounds a lame excuse , I know, but I never seem to be able to find the time.
only
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The only excuse for the House of Lords is that it exists.
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My only excuse is that I love Paige very much, and I always protect those I love.
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I suppose the only excuse is the enormity of the tragedy that mankind faces.
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Her only excuse was that it had happened so quickly - too quickly.
pathetic
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Crowe offered a pathetic excuse about investigating woodworm infestation for his nature column, but I soon beetled the truth out of him.
perfect
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She should be thankful for it. Perfect excuse on the mercifully rare occasions when he hinted, showed any interest.
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Your accountant can be a perfect excuse for you not to invest in your friends' financially uncertain ventures.
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It was the perfect excuse for ringing up complete strangers and asking all sort of personal questions.
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The panic attacks gave her the perfect excuse , as no blame could possibly be attributed to her.
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If you've never experienced an exemption show before, this is the perfect excuse to have a go.
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However, Simon came to call at Regent's Park, he had the perfect excuse .
plausible
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No. 17. finding the plausible excuse Think of some situation where one needs tact and diplomacy.
poor
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But Tories have continued to attack, saying the scheme is a poor excuse for real pedestrianisation.
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Do not make a poor excuse Waiting, weak, unsteady.
reasonable
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The driver refused and was in due course convicted by justices of failing to provide a specimen without reasonable excuse .
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There is, it should be noted, no exception for reasonable excuse in this section.
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A player without a reasonable excuse should be barred from entering the competition the following year.
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A refusal to answer questions for example, could, in the absence of reasonable excuse , amount to contempt of court.
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Note: Failure without reasonable excuse to comply with these requirements is a criminal offence.
valid
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But that is not a valid excuse .
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There was the valid excuse to delay the marriage because air force regulations stipulated only unmarried men may enter pilot training school.
■ VERB
avoid
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Hyacinth came with them, more for company and the irrefutable excuse to avoid work than from any religious inclination.
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But Gingrich provides an alluring excuse for avoiding having to work out exactly what they are for.
find
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He was always finding some excuse to hold that wretched girl.
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Twenty minutes passed before Rosie found an excuse to head my way.
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Each time there's a local sighting I usually find an excuse to go out and try to discover it myself.
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I find excuses to be alone with him.
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Everyone knew that she would find an excuse to leave when this delightful house party broke up.
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This often results in delay - postponing the choice by finding an excuse or setting an unnecessarily long timescale.
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But he could find no excuse whatever for pleasure alone.
give
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It also gives me an excuse to mention the much neglected Silver speciality, drive lace.
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Mr Strine also gives readers excuses for his losses, such as injuries to key players or even the weather.
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The panic attacks gave her the perfect excuse , as no blame could possibly be attributed to her.
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Plus, it gives you an excuse to wear shorts a lot.
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And it gives us an excuse to let people know about the River Thames.
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The tollgate at the bridge gave him another excuse for dallying.
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You imagine this war gives you the excuse to disobey me and do exactly as you wish.
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The first night after George left her was one of the planned stops, giving him no excuse to worry.
invent
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For a moment he thought she was going to invent some excuse .
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If I ring and invent some excuse she knows me too well not to see through it.
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If the woman didn't move soon she would have to invent an excuse .
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He offers them another unsettling peacemaking idea; they invent another excuse for turning it down.
leave
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None of these reasons provides an adequate excuse for leaving an important ingredient like behaviour to chance.
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I made my excuses and left .
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Neil Fraser looked tired and on edge, his wife was subdued and made an excuse to leave them early.
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Everyone knew that she would find an excuse to leave when this delightful house party broke up.
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Inventing farfetched excuses , she left me trapped in her flat and made no attempt to help me look for work.
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Maggie became an excuse to leave the endless collective meetings early.
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I made my excuses and left before Grant Watson remembered I owed him an essay.
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There are no excuses left for me or anyone in my position, for Government or for Opposition.
look
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Mr. Portillo I know that the Labour party thinks that it has lost the election, and is looking for an excuse .
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But maybe she was looking for an excuse not to be part of this informal evening.
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I felt they were looking for any excuse to start a fight.
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Jody Runge is a lawsuit looking for an excuse to happen.
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I've been looking for an excuse to cut my lord Heuil out of the pack, and now you give me this.
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Are they just moaning minnies looking for excuses ?
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I'd been looking for an excuse to make something in ebony for ages, anyway!
make
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Or are you here to make some pretty excuse that will enable you to see him?
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But he always made excuses for them, thought up good reasons for their being late.
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When she became engrossed in some new work he made her preoccupation an excuse for drawing away from her.
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We could ascribe these setbacks to the fact that our regime is young, or make other excuses .
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I made an excuse and settled for tea and muesli.
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All veteran field-trip chaperons know to make some excuse that will allow them to drive their own cars and meet the buses.
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Anyway, I've made all the excuses - it just depends where your head's at.
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Conditions are seldom ideal, and if one waits long enough for ideal conditions, then one is just making excuses .
need
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All she needed now was an excuse to contact her.
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What we need is a new excuse to go somewhere.
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I don't need any excuse .
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I suppose a bully doesn't need an excuse .
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And after a while you didn't need that excuse .
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He didn't need excuses , not when the wife was away, but every little encouragement helped.
offer
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City player-manager Peter Reid offered no excuses .
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His criticisms have been constructive, and he has offered no excuses .
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It is true that it was a dreadful blow, and that we were bitterly disappointed, but we offer no excuses .
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A mixture of muddle-headedness and corruption offers an excuse for do-nothing politics in the west.
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When intensive care or emergency surgery are used inappropriately doctors sometimes offer as an excuse their uncertainty about the law.
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Crowe offered a pathetic excuse about investigating woodworm infestation for his nature column, but I soon beetled the truth out of him.
provide
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Queries and Disputes Queries and disputes provide the greatest excuses ever for not paying accounts.
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None of these reasons provides an adequate excuse for leaving an important ingredient like behaviour to chance.
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It will only cause a problem where none exists and provide an excuse for delaying payments on existing debts.
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Apart from providing her with an excuse to respond to his card, the idea in itself was a perfectly good one.
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She obviously hadn't expected Jessamy to provide her with an excuse for staying longer at the house.
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We have seen how law and theory unite to provide a list of excuses which rebut the normal presumption of voluntariness.
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But Gingrich provides an alluring excuse for avoiding having to work out exactly what they are for.
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Or it can sometimes provide an excuse not to become involved in projects that require effort.
stay
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She had to think of an excuse for staying in Walton Street.
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In any event, if you want an excuse to stay in the market, Greenspan offers that, too.
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She obviously hadn't expected Jessamy to provide her with an excuse for staying longer at the house.
use
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My flatmate moved out a month ago, and in that month I've used it as an excuse to binge.
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But Symington and his allies used it as an excuse to further postpone what is inevitable and right.
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There are people out there who will use any excuse to cause trouble.
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My patients often use that as an excuse for chocolate binges, shopping binges, alcohol, and affairs.
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There were complaints by black youths of police harassment, the sus laws merely being used as an excuse for this.
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They should not use the excuse of a different technology as a rationale for imposing different standards on speech.
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Perhaps she had heard our voices and used them as an excuse to break away from Henry Clerval.
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Is it fair to use homework as an excuse ?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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He doesn't make excuses when he gets something wrong.
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He said his car had broken down, but it was just an excuse for coming home late.
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Oh shut up Bill, I'm tired of listening to your excuses.
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That is the most feeble excuse for failing a test that I have ever heard.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But Symington and his allies used it as an excuse to further postpone what is inevitable and right.
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D'Arquebus Senior's pedantic excuses made no sense.
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I had to rush the decorators through, but I knew exactly what I wanted and I wouldn't take any excuse .
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There were complaints by black youths of police harassment, the sus laws merely being used as an excuse for this.
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We shall use his perceived activities as an excuse for not growing up.
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Yet, after three years, it also sounded like an excuse .