Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To explain rationally.
- intransitive verb To explain or justify (one's behavior) with incorrect reasons or excuses, often without conscious awareness.
- intransitive verb To dismiss or minimize the significance of (something) by means of an explanation or excuse.
- intransitive verb To make (a business or process, for example) more efficient, as by reducing costs or introducing modern methods.
- intransitive verb To terminate the employment of (workers) in an effort to improve efficiency.
- intransitive verb Mathematics To remove radicals, such as from a denominator, without changing the value of (an expression) or roots of (an equation).
- intransitive verb To think in a rational or rationalistic way.
- intransitive verb To rationalize one's behavior.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make conformable to reason; give rationality to; cause to be or to appear reasonable or intelligible.
- To subject to the test of reason; explain or interpret by rational principles; treat in the manner of a rationalist; as, to
rationalize religion or the Scriptures. - In algebra, to free from radical signs.
- To think for one's self; employ the reason as a supreme test; argue or speculate upon the basis of rationality or rationalism; act as a rationalist.
- Also spelled
rationalise .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To use, and rely on, reason in forming a theory, belief, etc., especially in matters of religion: to accord with the principles of rationalism.
- transitive verb To make rational; also, to convert to rationalism.
- transitive verb To interpret in the manner of a rationalist.
- transitive verb To form a rational conception of.
- transitive verb (Alg.) To render rational; to free from radical signs or quantities.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To make something
rational or more rational. - verb mathematics To remove
radicals , without changing thevalue of anexpression or theroots of anequation . - verb To
structure something alongmodern ,efficient andsystematic lines, or according toscientific principles .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb think rationally; employ logic or reason
- verb weed out unwanted or unnecessary things
- verb defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning
- verb remove irrational quantities from
- verb structure and run according to rational or scientific principles in order to achieve desired results
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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She had what she believed to be a good reason for revenge, and her villainous side was superbly played! on 26 May 2009 at 12: 25 pm thea the best villians are the high functioning ones, because they ‘seem’ so normal, and their ability to rationalize is quite scary. on 26 May 2009 at 12: 31 pm Karin Tabke
Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Guest blogger Karin Tabke on bad boys 2009
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- Emerging markets to "rationalize" - we've beaten the China drum to death but there are others out there.
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It has been said that to rationalize is to tell rational lies, and we have been doing a lot of rationalizing capitalism over the past 5-10 years.
John Hope Bryant: Dispatch from Davos: 'The Global Con' 2010
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It has been said that to rationalize is to tell rational lies, and we have been doing a lot of rationalizing capitalism over the past 5-10 years.
John Hope Bryant: Dispatch from Davos: 'The Global Con' John Hope Bryant 2010
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It has been said that to rationalize is to tell rational lies, and we have been doing a lot of rationalizing capitalism over the past 5-10 years.
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A quick reaction occurs emotionally, and then people "rationalize" it.
Paul Abrams: Coakley Can Win Massachusetts...If It is Not Too Late 2010
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Meanwhile, state-owned oil, aluminum and steel company are obliged to "rationalize" their electric use.
Nikolas Kozloff: El Niño in Venezuela: Hugo Chávez's "Katrina" Moment? 2010
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Meanwhile, the company plans to seek ways to further reduce costs and continues to "rationalize" its distribution network.
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Our references to other conflicts are not intended to "rationalize" of "justify" the contemporary actions of Al Qaeda.
Clarence B. Jones: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of al-Qaeda, Parts 1 and 2 2010
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Meanwhile, state-owned oil, aluminum and steel company are obliged to "rationalize" their electric use.
skipvia commented on the word rationalize
Tom's men were starving. The last battle had decimated his platoon's numbers and cut off all outside communication. Their rations had run out over a week ago. The only food they had been able to secure since then came from trapping and slaughtering birds from island's quickly dwindling owl population. The meat was sinewy and rancid, but they were so hungry that they ate every muscle and every organ--except for the eyeballs. Even starving men have their limits, it seemed to Tom. But he kept the eyes, preserving them as he could, in case it came to that. And now, the time had come. There were no more owls. His men were on the verge of death. He had to come up with a plan to stretch his gelatinous cache as far as possible.
"I'll give each man two eyeballs a day," said Tom, trying to rationalize the situation.
October 30, 2007