| Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. 1995. |
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explain |
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| VERB: | 1. To offer reasons for or a cause of: account for, justify, rationalize. See EXPLAIN. 2. To make understandable: construe, decipher, explicate, expound, interpret, spell out. Archaic : enucleate. Idioms: put into plain English. See EXPLAIN. 3. To find a solution for: clear up, decipher, resolve, solve, unravel. Informal : dope out, figure out. Idioms: get to the bottom of. See ASK, REASON. | | PHRASAL VERB: | explain away To conceal or make light of a fault or offense: extenuate, gloss over, gloze (over), palliate, sleek over, whitewash. See SHOW.
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| Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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