Justify vs Overjustify - What's the difference?
justify | overjustify |
To provide an acceptable explanation for.
To be a good, acceptable reason for; warrant.
* E. Everett
To arrange (text) on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned.
To absolve, and declare to be free of blame or sin
* Shakespeare
* Bible, Acts xiii. 39
To prove; to ratify; to confirm.
To justify excessively; to provide too much justification for.
(psychology) Specifically , to provide external incentive for an already-internally-motivated behavior, thereby risking the loss of the original motivation.
In lang=en terms the difference between justify and overjustify
is that justify is to absolve, and declare to be free of blame or sin while overjustify is to justify excessively; to provide too much justification for.As verbs the difference between justify and overjustify
is that justify is to provide an acceptable explanation for while overjustify is to justify excessively; to provide too much justification for.justify
English
Alternative forms
* justifie (obsolete)Verb
- How can you justify spending so much money on clothes?
- Paying too much for car insurance is not justified .
- Nothing can justify your rude behaviour last night.
- Unless the oppression is so extreme as to justify' revolution, it would not ' justify the evil of breaking up a government.
- The text will look better justified .
- I cannot justify whom the law condemns.
- By him all that believe are justified' from all things, from which ye could not be ' justified by the law of Moses.
- (Shakespeare)