explain away

verb

explained away; explaining away; explains away

transitive verb

1
: to get rid of by or as if by explanation
2
: to minimize the significance of by or as if by explanation
explains his faults, but does not try to explain them awayM. K. Spears

Examples of explain away in a Sentence

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
Recent Examples on the Web And, if properly handled, this revelation could have gone a long way toward explaining away some of those flaws in the writing. Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2024 But poor casting was only half of it — Charles Walters' 1955 adaptation unfortunately reimagines the heroine as an irascible antisocial brat with delusions of grandeur, all explained away by bizarre contemporary psychoanalysis provided in voice-over. EW.com, 4 Mar. 2024 Amy Goh, a contortionist and author of the Bendy Diaries blog, is eager to dispel the myth that her ability can be explained away as an inborn quality. Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 20 Feb. 2024 Viewers need to just accept or ignore that such an outrageously stupid procedural FUBAR like this could occur in real life — which is also never explained away in the script by Moller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen — to get on with taking the film seriously. Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Feb. 2024 DeSantis continued to snow the press with disinformation about his COVID response, citing Florida’s relatively high median age to explain away the state’s wretched performance against COVID. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 22 Jan. 2024 At the same time, police stress most people who own firearms handle them properly, and a single reason cannot explain away every shooting. Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 18 Jan. 2024 There’s just too much of the supernatural here to fully be explained away by Navarro’s schizophrenia or delirium from mine poisoning. Paul Tassi, Forbes, 10 Feb. 2024 And so there's a lot of using the vehicle of art to explain away breaking the rules. Katrina Kaufman, CBS News, 20 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'explain away.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1688, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of explain away was in 1688

Dictionary Entries Near explain away

Cite this Entry

“Explain away.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/explain%20away. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

explain away

verb
: to cause to seem less important by explaining
explained away her mistake
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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