From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Justify \Jus"ti*fy\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Justified}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Justifying}.] [F. justifier, L. justificare; justus just + -ficare (in comp.) to make. See {Just}, adjective, and {-fy}.]
1. To prove or show to be just; to vindicate; to maintain or defend as conformable to law, right, justice, propriety, or duty.
That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal providence, And justify the ways of God to men. --Milton.
Unless the oppression is so extreme as to justify revolution, it would not justify the evil of breaking up a government. --E. Everett.
2. To pronounce free from guilt or blame; to declare or prove to have done that which is just, right, proper, etc.; to absolve; to exonerate; to clear.
I can not justify whom the law condemns. --Shak.
3. (Theol.) To treat as if righteous and just; to pardon; to exculpate; to absolve.
By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. --Acts xiii. 39.
4. To prove; to ratify; to confirm. [Obs.] --Shak.
5. (Print.) To make even or true, as lines of type, by proper spacing; to align (text) at the left (left justify) or right (right justify) margins of a column or page, or at both margins; to adjust, as type. See {Justification}, 4.
6. (Law) (a) To show (a person) to have had a sufficient legal reason for an act that has been made the subject of a charge or accusation. (b) To qualify (one's self) as a surety by taking oath to the ownership of sufficient property. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
The production of bail in court, who there justify themselves against the exception of the plaintiff. --Bouvier's Law Dict. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Syn: To defend; maintain; vindicate; excuse; exculpate; absolve; exonerate.
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