Excuse (Verb)
Meaning 1
Ask for permission to be released from an engagement.
Classification
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing.
Examples
- I need to excuse myself from the meeting to take an urgent call.
- Can I excuse myself for a few minutes to make a personal phone call.
- She asked her boss if she could excuse herself for the rest of the day.
- May I excuse myself from dinner to attend to an unexpected matter.
- Could you excuse me from tonight's event as I have a sudden illness.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Related Words
Meaning 2
Accept an excuse for; "Please excuse my dirty hands".
Classification
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing.
Examples
- Please excuse my tardiness, I was stuck in traffic.
- Excuse my poor singing, I'm just learning to voice train.
- Please excuse my broken English, I'm still a language student.
- Excuse my early departure, I have a family emergency to attend to.
- My apologies, please excuse my dusty shoes, I just came from gardening.
Synonyms
Related Words
Meaning 3
Grant exemption or release to; "Please excuse me from this class".
Classification
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing.
Examples
- Please excuse me from this class, I have another commitment to attend to.
- I'd like to excuse myself from the project, I don't have the necessary expertise.
- Excuse me from the meeting, I have an urgent phone call to make.
- She asked to be excused from jury duty due to a prior family obligation.
- The doctor's note will excuse my absence from school for the past week.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Related Words
Meaning 4
Serve as a reason or cause or justification of; "Your need to sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work"; "Her recent divorce may explain her reluctance to date again".
Classification
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing.
Examples
- The company's minor delays do not excuse the consistent failure to meet deadlines on large projects.
- Her recent injury could excuse her from participating in the marathon this year.
- The stressful job does not excuse their bad behavior towards colleagues.
- The long traffic jam may excuse his tardiness to the meeting.
- His lack of preparation does not excuse his poor performance in the exam.
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Related Words
Meaning 5
Excuse, overlook, or make allowances for; be lenient with; "excuse someone's behavior"; "She condoned her husband's occasional infidelities".
Classification
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing.
Examples
- His mother always excuses his lack of manners, citing her son's difficult childhood as the reason.
- Please excuse the mess, we haven't had a chance to clean up after the party.
- Because she respected his work ethic, she decided to excuse his occasional tardiness.
- The coach excuses her player's aggression, claiming it's just a heated game.
- We excuse the kids' loud laughter when we're hosting their birthday party at our house.
Synonyms
Related Words
Meaning 6
Defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning; "rationalize the child's seemingly crazy behavior"; "he rationalized his lack of success".
Classification
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing.
Examples
- She tried to excuse her tardiness due to the heavy traffic that morning.
- The company will excuse the payment for this month due to unforeseen circumstances.
- The manager was forced to excuse his team's poor performance with weak excuses.
- The teacher couldn't excuse the student's misbehavior despite the difficult home situation.
- He tried to excuse his absence by saying he had a family emergency.