jus ‧ ti ‧ fy S3 W3 AC /ˈdʒʌstəfaɪ, ˈdʒʌstɪfaɪ/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle justified , present participle justifying , third person singular justifies ) [transitive]
[ Word Family: adjective : ↑ justifiable ≠ ↑ unjustifiable , ↑ justified ≠ ↑ unjustified ; verb : ↑ justify ; noun : ↑ justification ; adverb : ↑ justifiably ≠ ↑ unjustifiably ]
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: French ; Origin: justifier , from Late Latin justificare , from Latin justus ; ⇨ ↑ just 2 ]
1 . to give an acceptable explanation for something that other people think is unreasonable:
Ministers must appear before Parliament and justify their actions.
justify doing something
How can we justify spending so much money on arms?
justify yourself (=prove that what you are doing is reasonable)
I don’t have to justify myself to you or anyone else.
2 . to be a good and acceptable reason for something:
Nothing justifies murdering another human being.
3 . technical to arrange lines of words on a page or computer screen so that they form a straight edge on both the right and left sides