2
general::
Phrase(s): 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.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
3
general::
noun reason given ADJ. perfect, wonderful | good, legitimate, valid | convincing, plausible, reasonable | feeble, flimsy, lame, pathetic, poor | convenient, easy The children provided a convenient excuse for missing the party. | standard, usual | 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 behaviour). 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 Rodney gave me an excuse to take the car. Her mother's illness provided her with an excuse to stay at home. | need | look for | find, invent, make up, seize on, 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 tidying his room. | accept, believe | reject PREP. ~ about He invented a pathetic excuse about losing his watch. | ~ for It's just an excuse for a party. PHRASES there is no excuse for … There's no excuse for such behaviour. bad example of sth ADJ. pathetic, poor PREP. ~ for Why get involved with that pathetic excuse for a human being?
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
4
general::
excuse
verbs
make up/think up/invent an excuse
• I made up some excuse about my car breaking down. • We’d better think up an excuse, fast.
make excuses for somebody/something
(= give reasons which try to explain why someone has made a mistake or behaved badly )
• His mother was always making excuses for her son's behaviour.
use something as an excuse
• She never complained or used her illness as an excuse.
look for an excuse
• I began to look for excuses to avoid seeing him.
give an excuse
• I'll have to give my boss some kind of excuse.
believe/accept an excuse
• She didn’t believe his excuse for one minute.
have an excuse
• Companies have no excuse for breaking the law.
adjectives
a good excuse
• A sunny day is a good excuse to go to the beach.
a wonderful excuse
(= a very good excuse )
• A wedding is a wonderful excuse to buy a new outfit.
a reasonable/plausible excuse
(= one that other people will believe )
• If your train was cancelled, that is a perfectly reasonable excuse.
a legitimate/valid excuse
(= one that is true and that other people cannot criticize )
• He didn’t have a legitimate excuse for being late.
the perfect excuse
• The phone call gave me the perfect excuse to leave.
a feeble/flimsy/weak excuse
(= one that is difficult to believe )
• Joe muttered some feeble excuse about having a headache.
a pathetic/lame excuse
(= very weak )
• That’s the most pathetic excuse I’ve ever heard.
the usual excuse/the same old excuse
• He made the usual excuses for not coming. • Whenever the trains are late, it's always the same old excuse.
a convenient excuse
• The rioting provided the government with a convenient excuse not to hold an election.
phrases
use every excuse in the book
(= use every possible excuse )
• He used every excuse in the book to avoid seeing the doctor.
at the slightest excuse
(= for any reason, however unimportant )
• She comes to our house at the slightest excuse.
transnet.ir