qualify
[kwol-uh-fahy]
- to provide with proper or necessary skills, knowledge, credentials, etc.; make competent: to qualify oneself for a job.
- to modify or limit in some way; make less strong or positive: to qualify an endorsement.
- Grammar. to modify.
- to make less violent, severe, or unpleasant; moderate; mitigate.
- to attribute some quality or qualities to; characterize, call, or name: She cannot qualify his attitude as either rational or irrational.
- to modify or alter the flavor or strength of: He qualified his coffee with a few drops of brandy.
- Law. to certify as legally competent.
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- to be fitted or competent for something.
- to get authority, license, power, etc., as by fulfilling required conditions, taking an oath, etc.
- Sports. to demonstrate the required ability in an initial or preliminary contest: He qualified in the trials.
- to fire a rifle or pistol on a target range for a score high enough to achieve a rating of marksman, sharpshooter, or expert.
- Military. to pass a practical test in gunnery.
- Law. to perform the actions necessary to acquire legal power or capacity: By filing a bond and taking an oath he qualified as executor.
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Origin of qualify
Synonyms
See more synonyms for qualify on Thesaurus.com1. fit, suit, adapt, prepare, equip. 2. narrow, restrict. 4. meliorate, soften, temper, reduce, diminish. 5. designate, label.
Synonym study
2. See modify.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for qualify
Contemporary Examples
Magazines are the only thing in my apartment that qualify as clutter.
We cannot qualify it based on ideological notions or concepts important only at one time in history.
To qualify for special protection, Marmolejos wrote, Doyle would have to have disclosed “substantial” law-breaking by the lab.
Qualification is exacting, and a majority of the teams that do qualify are from the West.
True, it took America until 1990 to qualify for another World Cup, and it was 64 years before we made it past the first round.
Historical Examples
And I'll be qualify'd I never larnt such a word when I went to his school.
The Politician Out-WittedSamuel Low
Do you send him to me,—I'll qualify him for that important station.
The Politician Out-WittedSamuel Low
She tossed her head as much as to say that she was still able to qualify for the description.
Louisiana LouWilliam West Winter
So Mr. Croy showed he could qualify the humble hand that assuaged him.
The Wings of the Dove, Volume 1 of 2Henry James
I began to qualify, rather weakly; but what I said did not matter.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, CompleteAlbert Bigelow Paine
qualify
- to provide or be provided with the abilities or attributes necessary for a task, office, duty, etchis degree qualifies him for the job; he qualifies for the job, but would he do it well?
- (tr) to make less strong, harsh, or violent; moderate or restrict
- (tr) to modify or change the strength or flavour of
- (tr) grammar another word for modify (def. 3)
- (tr) to attribute a quality to; characterize
- (intr) to progress to the final stages of a competition, as by winning preliminary contests
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Word Origin
C16: from Old French qualifier, from Medieval Latin quālificāre to characterize, from Latin quālis of what kind + facere to make
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for qualify
v.
mid-15c., "to invest with a quality," from Middle French qualifier (15c.) and directly from Medieval Latin qualificare "attribute a quality to; make of a certain quality," from Latin qualis "of what sort?," correlative pronomial adjective (see quality) + facere "to make" (see factitious). Meaning "to limit, modify" is from 1530s. Sense of "be fit for a job" first appeared 1580s. Related: Qualified; qualifying.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper