jus‧ti‧fy S3 W3 AC / dʒʌstəfaɪ, dʒʌstɪfaɪ / 动词 ( past tense and past participle justified , present participle justifying , third person singular justifies ) [及物动词]

1 to give an acceptable explanation for something that other people think is unreasonable :

Ministers must appear before Parliament and justify their actions.

justify doing something

How can we justify spending so much money on arms?

justify yourself (= prove that what you are doing is reasonable )

I don’t have to justify myself to you or anyone else.

2 to be a good and acceptable reason for something :

Nothing justifies murdering another human being.

3 technical to arrange lines of words on a page or computer screen so that they form a straight edge on both the right and left sides