rationalize

present singular third person rationalizes · participle present rationalizing · participle past rationalized · past rationalized · alternative rationalise

1. BritishEnglishOxfordUSTo make something rational or more rational.
2. BritishEnglishOxfordUSTo justify a discreditable act, or irrational behaviour.

   Vested interest, united ties, / landed gentry, rationalize. / Look who bought the myth. / By jingo, buy America.

   1987, “Exhuming McCarthy”, in Document (R.E.M. No. 5), performed by R.E.M.

3. BritishEnglishOxfordUSmathematicsTo remove radicals, without changing the value of an expression or the roots of an equation.
4. BritishEnglishOxfordUSTo structure something along modern, efficient and systematic lines, or according to scientific principles. This often includes eliminating duplication and grouping like or similar items.

   1 more example

   At our October meeting, Membership Director George Kaufer suggested rationalizing schedules on the Morris & Essex and Montclair-Boonton trains. He had prepared peak-hour schedules with a focus on ensuring that trains to Hoboken alternate more equally with those to New York, rather than having a number of trains to one destination together before a train to the other city.

   2024 11, Sally Jane Gellert, “Report from the Chair”, in Lackawanna Coalition Railgram