Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - excuse

(excused) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. An excuse is a reason which you give in order to explain why something has been done or has not been done, or in order to avoid doing something. It is easy to find excuses for his indecisiveness... Once I had had a baby I had the perfect excuse to stay at home... If you stop making excuses and do it you’ll wonder what took you so long. = justification N-COUNT: oft N for n/-ing, N to-inf • If you say that there is no excuse for something, you are emphasizing that it should not happen, or expressing disapproval that it has happened. There’s no excuse for behaviour like that... Solitude was no excuse for sloppiness. PHRASE: v-link PHR, oft PHR for n/-ing c darkgreen]disapproval 2. To excuse someone or excuse their behaviour means to provide reasons for their actions, especially when other people disapprove of these actions. He excused himself by saying he was ‘forced to rob to maintain my wife and cat’... That doesn’t excuse my mother’s behaviour. = justify VERB: V n by -ing, V n 3. If you excuse someone for something wrong that they have done, you forgive them for it. Many people might have excused them for shirking some of their responsibilities. = forgive VERB: V n for n/-ing, also V n, V n n 4. If someone is excused from a duty or responsibility, they are told that they do not have to carry it out. She is usually excused from her duties during the school holidays... She was excused duties on Saturday. VERB: usu passive, be V-ed from n/-ing, be V-ed n 5. If you excuse yourself, you use a phrase such as ‘Excuse me’ as a polite way of saying that you are about to leave. He excused himself and went up to his room. VERB: V pron-refl 6. You say ‘Excuse me’ when you want to politely get someone’s attention, especially when you are about to ask them a question. Excuse me, but are you Mr Honig? CONVENTION c darkgreen]formulae 7. You use excuse me to apologize to someone when you have disturbed or interrupted them. Excuse me interrupting, but there’s a thing I feel I’ve got to say. CONVENTION c darkgreen]formulae 8. You use excuse me or a phrase such as if you’ll excuse me as a polite way of indicating that you are about to leave or that you are about to stop talking to someone. ‘Excuse me,’ she said to Jarvis, and left the room... Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got work to do. CONVENTION c darkgreen]politeness 9. You use excuse me, but to indicate that you are about to disagree with someone. (mainly BRIT) Excuse me, but I want to know what all this has to do with us. CONVENTION 10. You say excuse me to apologize when you have bumped into someone, or when you need to move past someone in a crowd. = sorry PHRASE c darkgreen]formulae 11. You say excuse me to apologize when you have done something slightly embarrassing or impolite, such as burping, hiccupping, or sneezing. CONVENTION c darkgreen]formulae 12. You say ‘Excuse me?’ to show that you want someone to repeat what they have just said. (AM; in BRIT, usually use pardon, sorry) CONVENTION c darkgreen]formulae