excuse

{{Roman}}I.{{/Roman}}

noun

1 reason given

ADJECTIVE

▪ perfect, wonderful

▪ excellent, good, great, legitimate, valid

▪ convincing, decent, plausible, reasonable

▪ acceptable

▪

an acceptable excuse for missing school

▪ bad, feeble, flimsy, lame, lousy (esp. AmE), pathetic, poor, weak (esp. AmE)

▪ convenient, easy, handy

▪

The children provided a convenient excuse for missing the party.

▪ dumb (AmE), ridiculous, stupid

▪

He made up some stupid excuse to the teachers.

▪ standard, usual

▪ built-in (AmE)

▪

a built-in excuse for failure

▪ possible

▪

What possible excuse could he have?

▪ every

▪

She seized on every excuse to avoid doing the work.

▪ the slightest

▪

He became moody and unreasonable, flailing out at Katherine at the slightest excuse.

VERB + EXCUSE

▪ have

▪

He had no excuse for being so late.

▪ give, make, offer

▪

She made some feeble excuse about the car having broken down.

▪

You don't have to make excuses for her (= try to think of reasons for her actions).

▪

It's late. I'm afraid I'll have to make my excuses (= say I'm sorry, give my reasons and leave).

▪ give sb, offer sb, provide (sb with)

▪

Delivering the stuff for George gave me an excuse to take the car.

▪

Her mother's illness provided her with an excuse to stay at home.

▪ need

▪ look for

▪ create, find, invent, make up, think of, think up

▪

She had to find a valid excuse for leaving the room.

▪

He made up a rather lame excuse for the work being late.

▪ use sth as

▪

The political crisis is being used as an excuse to dock people's pay.

▪ run out of

▪

He's run out of excuses for not cleaning his room.

▪ become

▪

Don't let perfectionism become an excuse for never getting started.

▪ mumble

▪

Justin mumbled some excuse and left.

▪ accept, believe, buy (informal, esp. AmE)

▪ hear

▪

I don't want to hear any more excuses.

▪ reject

PREPOSITION

▪ excuse about

▪

He invented a pathetic excuse about losing his watch.

▪ excuse for

▪

It's just an excuse for a party.

PHRASES

▪ there is no excuse for … 

▪

There's no excuse for such conduct.

2 bad example of sth

ADJECTIVE

▪ lousy (esp. AmE), miserable, pathetic, pitiful, poor, sad, sorry (esp. AmE)

▪

She's a pitiful excuse for an actress.

▪

a sorry excuse for a man

PREPOSITION

▪ excuse for

▪

Why get involved with that pathetic excuse for a human being?

{{Roman}}II.{{/Roman}}

verb

Excuse is used with these nouns as the object: ↑behaviour, ↑failure