RATIONALIZE

v. 1 make plausible or believable or understandable or acceptable or reasonable, make allowance(s) or excuses for, vindicate, account for, justify, excuse, reason away, explain away How can you rationalize taking my car without my permission? 2 think through, reason out; apply logic to, ratiocinate He warps the statistics to rationalize his argument The fundamentalists make no attempt to rationalize their literal interpretation of the Scripture.