condone

present singular third person condones · participle present condoning · participle past condoned · past condoned

1. transitiveTo forgive, excuse or overlook (something that is considered morally wrong, offensive, or generally disliked).

   ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police[…]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

2. transitiveTo allow, accept or permit (something that is considered morally wrong, offensive, or generally disliked).

   Rule-utilitarianism is unlikely to condone torturing a child, but it does imply that the torturing of a child is less evil if the torturer shares his pleasure with other sadists-perhaps by inviting an audience, or broadcasting it on the Internet.

   2001, Will Kymlicka, Contemporary Political Philosophy, Oxford University Press, page 29

3. transitivelawTo forgive (marital infidelity or other marital offense).