account for

present singular third person accounts for · participle present accounting for · participle past accounted for · past accounted for

1. transitiveTo explain by relating circumstances; to show that some one, thing or members of a group are present or have been processed.

   I don't have to account for anything to you.

   3 more examples

   The storekeeper was expected to account for any material removed.

   […] But there are still four cartridges in the revolver. Two have been fired and two wounds inflicted, so that each bullet can be accounted for.

   a. 1905, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Dancing Men”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, W. R. Caldwell & Co. (1905), page 78

   Under the previous administration, the meetings between DfT officials and train operating companies who were performing badly had been scrapped. These have now been restored, with both Avanti West Coast and TransPennine Express being called in to account for themselves.

   2024 August 7, Christian Wolmar, “Labour in a hurry to implement changes on the railway”, in RAIL, number 1015, page 43

2. transitiveTo be the primary cause of

   The torrential downpour would account for the saturated state of the land.

3. transitiveTo constitute in amount or portion.

   German speakers accounted for 37% of the population.

   1 more example

   ... and car strikes account for more than 50000, it's obvious the wolves' effect on the state's deer herd is so small as to be meaningless.

   1992 November 15, “Scientists monitoring return of wolves to Upper Pennisula”, in Chicago Tribune

4. transitiveTo make or render a reckoning of funds, persons, or things.

   When you deduct the direct and indirect costs, the picture looks a little different. Only mail and coal traffic generated a net revenue when accounting for all costs, not just direct operating costs.

   2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 46

   1 more example

   His mind accounted for one useless article after another in a vain search for any kind of makeshift tool. Not a scrap of metal, not even a serviceable edge of broken stone or brick, had been left to suggest escape.

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

5. transitiveTo be answerable for.
6. transitiveTo destroy or put out of action.

   Coyotes account for more rabbits than hunters do.

   2 more examples

   Allied Air Forces Account for 34 Axis Aircraft

   1942 October 11, “Check of Fortress, Liberator Raid At Lille Reveals High Enemy Loss”, in Hartford Courant

   South Vietnamese counter-attacks helped account for 239 guerrillas reported killed in the 24 hours ending at 6 today, 86 of them in allied air attacks

   1972 February 22, “Jet Missile Downs Mig In Dogfight”, in The Bulletin

7. datedtransitiveTo kill, as in hunting.

   He accounted for two deer today.