"excused" in the verb sense

1. excuse, pardon

accept an excuse for

"Please excuse my dirty hands"

2. excuse, relieve, let off, exempt

grant exemption or release to

"Please excuse me from this class"

3. excuse, explain

serve as a reason or cause or justification of

"Your need to sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work"

"Her recent divorce may explain her reluctance to date again"

4. apologize, apologise, excuse, rationalize, rationalise

defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning

"rationalize the child's seemingly crazy behavior"

"he rationalized his lack of success"

5. excuse, beg off

ask for permission to be released from an engagement

6. excuse, condone

excuse, overlook, or make allowances for be lenient with

"excuse someone's behavior"

"She condoned her husband's occasional infidelities"

"excused" in the adjective sense

1. excused

granted exemption

"one of the excused jurors planned to write a book"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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