after the surprise attack, military leaders struggled to explain away the nation's unpreparedness
tried to explain away his adulterous affairs by saying that men are promiscuous by nature
1688
excuse, extenuate, gloss (over), gloze (over), palliate, whitewash;
account (for), explain, justify, rationalize;
minimize, play down, soft-pedal;
alleviate, ease, lessen, lighten, mitigate, moderate, soften, temper;
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for explain away
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