extenuate

Nothing can extenuate the horror of acts he spent his adult life trying to avoid.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2022

In my initial salvo, I pointed out that Yglesias had minimized the harm of copyright infringement with a rationale that could extenuate theft of any kind.

From Slate ● Feb. 2, 2012

Exceptionalism can be a dangerous faith because of how much it can extenuate and excuse.

From Time ● Feb. 4, 2010

He told them with evident regret that pity for the drugged and passion-crazed chauffeur could not extenuate the crime of murder, nor could repugnance for "Rats'" wife count properly against her at this trial.

From Time Magazine Archive

Pall′iātive, serving to extenuate: mitigating.—n. that which lessens pain, disease, &c.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

“Prince is painfully removed from the youth culture in which he’s participating, which only extenuates the project’s problems,” it stated.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 18, 2015

Constitute a sin it may, but consider yourself, Grigory Vassilyevitch, that it only extenuates it, if it does constitute.

From The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

But the pathetic anxiety of the face from which all memories of "Charley's Aunt" have utterly vanished is too much for his fortitude; and, at the risk of more semi-fibs, he extenuates the sentence.

From Somehow Good by William Frend De Morgan

Conscious of her own imperfections, she never justifies her faults, and seldom extenuates them.

From Coelebs In Search of a Wife by Hannah More

In all this the author of "The Warden" and "Barchester Towers" nothing extenuates nor puts down aught in malice.

From Confessions of a Book-Lover by Maurice Francis Egan

Hooker’s problems have been particularly extenuated and traumatic, especially for a vaulter who had the skill and composure to set an Olympic record of 19-6½ at the 2008 Beijing Games.

From New York Times ● Aug. 8, 2012

This news extenuated the Earl's guilt in her eyes to a degree which permitted a slight emotion resembling pity to pervade her.

From The Streets of Ascalon Episodes in the Unfinished Career of Richard Quarren, Esqre. by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

A black Pomeranian, extenuated by the heat and the fatigues of digestion, slept before the blaze.

From Mortal Coils by Aldous Huxley

They have unwisely smoothed away so much and have extenuated so much in their halting and ambiguous phrases, as to create a picture of which the outlines are far too faint.

From William Hickling Prescott by Harry Thurston Peck

We are sick of hearing brutality and wickedness, either in Puritan or Catholic, extenuated on the ground of bigotry.

From Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 2 August 1848 by Various

There were, however, extenuating circumstances, in that he was 12th fastest before failing to improve on a messy final lap hindered by a sub-optimal 'prep' lap which left his tyres out of the 'window'.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

Medicare doesn’t cover you for emergency hospital care overseas, except in certain extenuating circumstances where a foreign hospital may be closer than a U.S. one.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 13, 2026

Kasten said the Dodgers and other teams try to accommodate fans with extenuating circumstances.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2024

“The one thing I can tell you is that everyone that’s ever worked for me has always gotten paid. Obviously, the circumstances here are a little extenuating, but yes, everybody will be paid eventually.”

From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2024

He wanted to plead his friend’s case, explain the extenuating circumstances.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover