extenuating circumstance

American  

noun

Law.

1. Usually extenuating circumstances a circumstance that renders conduct less serious and thereby serves to reduce the damages to be awarded or the punishment to be imposed.

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Etymology

Origin of extenuating circumstance

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

No matter the situation, the season, the holiday, the extenuating circumstance — there was always tuna.

From Salon • Dec. 18, 2022

“There must be some extenuating circumstance that they felt the urgency to arrest him then instead of waiting, if there was some risk factor, an escape risk or something like that,” Hahn said.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 8, 2022

That’s the steepest increase since 1991, but the reopening of the economy is a major extenuating circumstance that prompts some to dismiss inflation risk.

From New York Times • Jul. 9, 2021

But over the roughly two-month period in between, all classes will be conducted remotely and only students facing a hardship or other extenuating circumstance will be allowed to live on campus.

From Washington Times • Oct. 9, 2020

He could see nothing but the bare brutal fact, its baseness, its vulgarity—above all its vulgarity, gross, manifest, odious, without one extenuating circumstance.

From The Child of Pleasure by Harding, Georgina