|Origin:||justifier, from Late Latin justificare, from Latin justus; JUST2|
jus‧ti‧fy S2 W3 past tense and past participle justified, present participle justifying, third person singular justifies [transitive]
to give an acceptable explanation for something that other people think is unreasonable:
Ministers must appear before parliament and justify their actions.
justify doing something
How can we justify spending so much money on arms?
justify yourself (=prove that what you are doing is reasonable)
I don't have to justify myself to you or anyone else.
to be a good and acceptable reason for something:
Nothing justifies murdering another human being.
to arrange lines of words on a page or computer screen so that they form a straight edge on both the right and left sides