Verb

• S: (v) apologize, apologise, excuse, rationalize, rationalise (defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning) "rationalize the child's seemingly crazy behavior"; "he rationalized his lack of success"
• direct troponym / full troponym
• direct hypernym / inherited hypernym / sister term
• S: (v) defend, support, fend for (argue or speak in defense of) "She supported the motion to strike"
• S: (v) apologize, apologise, excuse, rationalize, rationalise (defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning) "rationalize the child's seemingly crazy behavior"; "he rationalized his lack of success"
• S: (v) take sides with, take someone's side (support someone (as in an argument)) "she always takes his side, no matter how sound his argument"
• direct hypernym / inherited hypernym / sister term
• S: (v) defend, support, fend for (argue or speak in defense of) "She supported the motion to strike"
• sentence frame
• S: (v) stand up, stick up (defend against attack or criticism) "He stood up for his friend"; "She stuck up for the teacher who was accused of harassing the student"
• S: (v) uphold (stand up for; stick up for; of causes, principles, or ideals)
• derivationally related form
• sentence frame
• S: (v) cut, prune, rationalize, rationalise (weed out unwanted or unnecessary things) "We had to lose weight, so we cut the sugar from our diet"
• S: (v) rationalize, rationalise (structure and run according to rational or scientific principles in order to achieve desired results) "We rationalized the factory's production and raised profits"
• S: (v) rationalize, rationalise (think rationally; employ logic or reason) "When one wonders why one is doing certain things, one should rationalize"
• S: (v) rationalize, rationalise (remove irrational quantities from) "This function can be rationalized"