excuse

excuse someone

 
1. . to forgive someone. (Usually with me. Said when interrupting or when some other minor offense has been committed. There are many mannerly uses of this expression.) John came in late and said, "Excuse me, please." John said "excuse me" when he interrupted our conversation. When John made a strange noise at the table, he said quietly, "Excuse me." John suddenly left the room saying, "Excuse me. I'll be right back."
2. to permit someone to leave; to permit someone to remain away from an event. The coach excused John from practice yesterday. The teacher excused John, and he ran quickly from the room.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See:
  • a bad excuse is better than none
  • bad excuse is better than none
  • Can I be excused?
  • Can you excuse us, please?
  • Could I be excused?
  • Could you excuse us, please?
  • excuse
  • excuse (one) for (something)
  • excuse (one) from (something)
  • excuse for
  • excuse from
  • Excuse me
  • Excuse me for breathing!
  • Excuse me for living!
  • excuse my French
  • excuse you
  • excuse, please
  • excuse/pardon my French
  • he who excuses himself accuses himself
  • ignorance is no excuse
  • ignorance of the law excuses no one
  • ignorance of the law is no excuse
  • ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it
  • May I be excused?
  • Pardon my French
  • pardon/excuse my French
  • Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally
  • 'scuse, please
  • use (someone or something) as an excuse (for something)
  • use as an excuse
  • Well, pardon me for living!
  • Will you excuse us, please?
  • Will/Would you excuse me(, please)?
  • Would you excuse me?
  • you should excuse the expression
  • you're excused
References in classic literature
"Now is my time to make peace with this gallant man," said D'Artagnan to himself, having stood on one side during the whole of the latter part of the conversation; and with this good feeling drawing near to Aramis, who was departing without paying any attention to him, "Monsieur," said he, "you will excuse me, I hope."
In the rough draught of it, he had mentioned, as his excuse for not being yet certain of his own movements, that he expected to be immediately married.
In the plainest words, she released him from his engagement, and, without waiting for his excuses, quitted the room.
Isabel, at Miss Pink's intercession, was induced to accept her lover's excuses, and, in the event of her favorable reception by Hardyman's parents at the farm, to give her consent (not very willingly even yet) to hastening the ceremony which was to make her Hardyman's wife.
Hardyman's invitations were in some cases refused; and in others accepted by husbands with excuses for the absence of their wives.
I can make no excuse for myself; I can only tell the truth, and say--so it was.
Fairlie to say that I would wait on him to take leave if he liked, but that he must excuse my being rather in a hurry.
"Yes; all the advantages of sitting still when he ought to move, and of leading a life of mere idle pleasure, and fancying himself extremely expert in finding excuses for it.
Monsieur Thuran had been trying to find an excuse to make a graceful departure.
"Do not forget that I am just waiting for some excuse." Then he turned on his heel, and left Rokoff standing there trembling with suppressed rage.
'Unnecessary to pursue the subject,' returned Flora, 'and would not have mentioned it on any account except as supposing it a favourable and only letter of introduction but as to being fact no doubt whatever and you may set your mind at rest for the very dress I have on now can prove it and sweetly made though there is no denying that it would tell better on a better figure for my own is much too fat though how to bring it down I know not, pray excuse me I am roving off again.' Mr Dorrit backed to his chair in a stony way, and seated himself, as Flora gave him a softening look and played with her parasol.
'Mr Dorrit,' said Flora, 'you are very kind in giving me permission and highly natural it seems to me that you should be kind for though more stately I perceive a likeness filled out of course but a likeness still, the object of my intruding is my own without the slightest consultation with any human being and most decidedly not with Arthur--pray excuse me Doyce and Clennam I don't know what I am saying Mr Clennam solus--for to put that individual linked by a golden chain to a purple time when all was ethereal out of any anxiety would be worth to me the ransom of a monarch not that I have the least idea how much that would come to but using it as the total of all I have in the world and more.'
done, the deeds theory of justification leaves Agnes only with an excuse.
It is easier to turn failure into success than an excuse into a possibility.
Excuses are the common denominator of failure: An excuse is a reconciliation of a mistake.