explain away

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verb

(tr, adverb) to offer excuses or reasons for (bad conduct, mistakes, etc)

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On the farm, the feed for chicks is significantly different from the roosters’; ______ not even comparable.

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its

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Words nearby explain away

expire, expired gas, expiry, expiscate, explain, explain away, explainer, explain oneself, explanate, explanation, explanatory

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use explain away in a sentence

Something like fluoride, which is too small for normal filters, yanks away that feeling of agency.
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers|Michael Schulson|July 27, 2016|DAILY BEAST
He observes the bodies floating away on the river, pulling on his cigarette with a sneer.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
So it might be me projecting my desires onto Archer to want to just get away from work for a few weeks.
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISIS|Marlow Stern|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
A grand juror in the Ferguson case is suing to be able to explain exactly what went down in the courtroom.
Politicians Only Love Journalists When They're Dead|Luke O’Neil|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST

But sources said that the evidence so far is pointing away from an ISIS connection.
U.S. Spies See Al Qaeda Fingerprints on Paris Massacre|Shane Harris, Nancy A. Youssef|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
It was a decayed house of superb proportions, but of a fashion long passed away.
Checkmate|Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
She walked away toward another door, which was masked with a curtain that she lifted.
Confidence|Henry James
If you throw away this chance, you will both richly deserve to be hanged, as I sincerely trust you will be.
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, v. 2(of 2)|Charles Dickens
The bear laughed and joined his companion, and the torpedo thundered away.
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol|William J. Locke
Nevertheless the evening and the night passed away without incident.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various

Other Idioms and Phrases with explain away

explain away

Dismiss or minimize the importance of something, especially something detrimental. For example, “His words were taken down, and though he tried to explain them away, he was sent to the Tower” (Thomas Macaulay, The History of England, 1855). [c. 1700]

explain away

Words nearby explain away

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How to use explain away in a sentence

Other Idioms and Phrases with explain away