justifying

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of justify.

   She spent the whole meeting justifying her decision to the board.

   Justifying the extra cost to investors took most of the afternoon.

   Note

   One -ing form carries every meaning of justify, from defending a choice to aligning text flush at both margins. As a gerund it keeps its verb grammar and takes a direct object: justifying the cost, justifying the text. With a reflexive pronoun it turns defensive. In she kept justifying herself, she is arguing that she was in the right. Once it drops the object and takes of or a plural, it has become the noun.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The process of demonstrating that an action, belief, or claim is right, fair, or reasonable.

   The report dragged on with page after page of justifying for the budget overrun.

   Endless justifying of the delay did nothing to calm the angry customers.

   Similarjustification, explanation, rationalization

   Note

   A noun that can be counted. In the plural, justifyings names separate rounds of self-defense rather than the abstract idea. Colburn's New Monthly Magazine of 1829 lists "oppressions, and complainings, and justifyings" side by side, and that company gives the word a weary, repetitive ring that the plainer justification lacks. Choose justification for the neutral concept, and justifying when the effort itself, often prolonged, is the point.

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