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Extenuation   Listen
Extenuation

noun
1.
A partial excuse to mitigate censure; an attempt to represent an offense as less serious than it appears by showing mitigating circumstances.  Synonym: mitigation.
2.
To act in such a way as to cause an offense to seem less serious.  Synonyms: mitigation, palliation.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Extenuation" Quotes from Famous Books



... abraded shin-bone and Poppsy with a cut lip. My Poppsy was more frightened at the sight of blood than actually hurt by her fall, and Dinkie betrayed a not unnatural tendency to enlarge on his injuries in extenuation of his offense. But that suddenly imposed demand for first-aid took my mind out of the darker waters in which it had been wallowing, and by the time I had comforted my kiddies and completed my ministrations ...
— The Prairie Child • Arthur Stringer

... the Church stoutly opposed the insetting tide, but as the waves of commercial life grew strong and swept around her, the power of resistance grew more feeble from year to year, until finally some of her own people began to plead extenuation and even tolerance. The conflict was now open, and the result seemed questionable. With the conscience of the Southern portion of the Church asleep or dormant, the anti-slavery side of the issue came finally to depend upon the Church in the ...
— Thirty Years in the Itinerancy • Wesson Gage Miller

... conventions. With a Republican mayor in every other city, there had been no attempt at official protection; and yet it may be remembered, in extenuation, that it is always easier for the party out of power than for the one in power to stand for principle; the former has nothing to lose. The Republicans at this time were panic-stricken and staggering under the weight of responsibility suddenly laid upon them; and the ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... Harlan, in extenuation. "Will you come in?" She was evidently a friend of Dorothy's, and, as ...
— At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern • Myrtle Reed

... of some great offence was tried before Lord Hermand (who was a great toper), and the counsel pleaded extenuation for his client in that he was drunk when he committed the offence. "Drunk!" exclaimed Lord Hermand, in great indignation; "if he could do such a thing when he was drunk, what might he not have done when he was sober?" evidently implying that ...
— The Jest Book - The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings • Mark Lemon


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