extenuate

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

Thereupon his onetime guests began to stampede before the Senate committee to explain and extenuate their presence at the 38th Street house.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nothing can extenuate cruelty; but it is well to face the fact that cruelty, and cruelty not greatly less atrocious than this, was an absolute attribute of the Elizabethan age.

From Great Ralegh by Selincourt, Hugh de