excusing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of excuse.

   The manager wasted no time excusing the delay to frustrated customers.

   Excusing such behavior only encourages it to continue.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty, and its surroundings tell the two jobs apart. As a participle it follows be (she was excusing herself from the table) or opens a clause of its own. As a gerund it behaves like a noun yet keeps a direct object, as in excusing the delay. The silent e of excuse drops before the ending.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of offering excuses, whether for one's own conduct or for someone else's.

   Her endless excusing of his behavior only made the situation worse.

   The committee grew tired of the excusing and demanded real answers.

   Similarjustification, rationalization, defense

   Oppositecondemnation

   Note

   Here the word has become a full noun, so it can be counted and made plural: excusings. In Mary Hunter Austin's A Woman of Genius, the plural stands beside explanations ("more explanations, excusings") and conveys a run of separate pleas. Unlike the verb form, it takes of before what is excused, as in the excusing of his behavior, rather than a direct object.

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