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

Seemingly the rash students were bent upon egging Prime Minister Velja Vukitchevitch of Jugoslavia into a suicidal war with Italy; but circumstances were not lacking to extenuate their folly.

From Time Magazine Archive

When the judge asked her if she had anything to say in arrest of judgment, she replied, in low, almost inaudible tones, that she could not extenuate her fault.

From Witch, Warlock, and Magician Historical Sketches of Magic and Witchcraft in England and Scotland by W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport) Adams

“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

Policy may, however, outweigh strategy, and the circumstance that the victor only retains as the price of peace his conquests, or part of them, made in war, extenuates if it does not justify divergent operations.

From A Short History of the Great War by A. F. (Albert Frederick) Pollard

This statement is, no doubt, substantially true; but we need hardly observe that it rather aggravates than extenuates his offence.

From Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume III (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. by Karl Ritter von Scherzer

The story is told with a bared realism which the poignancy of the occasion freely extenuates.

From Atlantic Narratives Modern Short Stories by Elizabeth Ashe

Thus to persist In doing wrong extenuates not wrong, But makes it much more heavy.

From Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare

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

He no longer doubted his son's guilt, he even despaired of drawing from the lad a frank admission that might somewhat have extenuated the ugly action.

From The Pocket Bible or Christian the Printer A Tale of the Sixteenth Century by Eug?ne Sue

I have not extenuated his faults, to the best of my knowledge.

From A Sketch of the Life and Labors of George Whitefield by John Charles Ryle

She recalled the promises that had not sufficed; no explanations extenuated the facts; no lures could avail; her resolution was taken and held firm.

From The Storm Centre by Mary Noailles Murfree

So the Beverly Park incident, and all other incidents, if true to the last syllable of the defense testimony, merely in this case extenuated the motive on November 5th.

From The Everett massacre A history of the class struggle in the lumber industry by Walker C. Smith

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

“Isn’t it a pity that we didn’t meet under less extenuating circumstances?”

From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger