excuse-me
Britishnoun
-
Also, I beg your pardon, pardon me . Forgive me, as in Excuse me, please let me pass , or Pardon me for asking , or I beg your pardon, I don't think so . These phrases are used as an apology for interrupting a conversation, bumping into someone, asking a speaker to repeat something, politely disagreeing with something said, and so on. The first dates from about 1600, the first variant from about 1800, the second from the mid-1700s.
-
Also, excuse oneself . Allow or ask to leave or be released from an obligation. For example, Please excuse me, I have to leave now , or I asked the judge to excuse me from jury duty . [1920s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After starting Lewis, his first batter, with a wild cutter that sent catcher Will Smith sprawling behind the plate, Henriquez executed a better one on the outside corner to induce an excuse-me swing.
From Los Angeles Times
“And so every 787 comes with presumably, I assume so, a heavy, heavy ‘excuse-me’ check attached to it.”
From Seattle Times
With the bases loaded, Tom Murphy hit an “excuse-me” dribbler to the right side of the pitcher’s mound on a check swing.
From Seattle Times
Open at Pebble Beach, by dropping an excuse-me 50-footer on the par-4 ninth, his final hole of the day.
From Golf Digest
He got Gary Sanchez to ground out with an excuse-me swing, stranding two baserunners in the sixth.
From Reuters
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.