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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
vindicate
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
fully
▪ But there was a more subtle purpose behind these proposals, fully vindicated by what subsequently happened.
▪ Birch was also a great believer in the corrosion-resistant qualities of cast-iron columns, and this confidence was fully vindicated by time.
▪ I felt I had fully vindicated my request.
▪ Allan Wells had won the 1981 World Cup 100 metres here, fully vindicating his Olympic win of the previous year.
■ VERB
feel
▪ I felt both vindicated and appalled.
▪ Only to Amy did she admit how triumphant she felt, and how vindicated.
▪ For eight months, he'd had the luxury of feeling vindicated.
▪ When rioting and violence erupted in 1966, liberals in Congress were understandably disturbed, while conservatives felt vindicated.
▪ I felt I had fully vindicated my request.
▪ I think it helps them feel vindicated at being such big sports fans.
▪ Senior Tories who dismissed the tax guarantee as a hostage to fortune will feel vindicated by Mr Hague's backdown.
▪ So shouldn't activists feel vindicated?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Several tests have fully vindicated Einstein's theory.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He left claiming that history would vindicate him.
▪ Only to Amy did she admit how triumphant she felt, and how vindicated.
▪ Retaining all 12 available World Cup players, the faith of the West Indies selectors was thoroughly vindicated.
▪ That a minority did succeed, however, again seemed to vindicate their technique.
▪ Their Lord had vindicated his people and honored their suffering and their struggles.
▪ They vindicated her theory of the adult beginner; they proved what could happen.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vindicate

Vindicate \Vin"di*cate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Vindicated; p. pr. & vb. n. Vindicating.] [L. vindicatus, p. p. of vindicare to lay claim to, defend, avenge. See Vengeance.]

  1. To lay claim to; to assert a right to; to claim. [R.]

    Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain? The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain.
    --Pope.

  2. To maintain or defend with success; to prove to be valid; to assert convincingly; to sustain against assault; as, to vindicate a right, claim, or title.

  3. To support or maintain as true or correct, against denial, censure, or objections; to defend; to justify.

    When the respondent denies any proposition, the opponent must directly vindicate . . . that proposition.
    --I. Watts.

    Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, But vindicate the ways of God to man.
    --Pope.

  4. To maintain, as a law or a cause, by overthrowing enemies.
    --Milton.

  5. To liberate; to set free; to deliver. [Obs.]

    I am confident he deserves much more That vindicates his country from a tyrant Than he that saves a citizen.
    --Massinger.

  6. To avenge; to punish; as, a war to vindicate or punish infidelity. [Obs.]
    --Bacon.

    God is more powerful to exact subjection and to vindicate rebellion.
    --Bp. Pearson.

    Syn: To assert; maintain; claim. See Assert.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
vindicate

1620s, "to avenge or revenge," from Latin vindicatus, past participle of vindicare "to stake a claim; to liberate; to act as avenger" (see vindication). Meaning "to clear from censure or doubt, by means of demonstration" is recorded from 1630s. Related: Vindicated, vindicating.

Wiktionary
vindicate

vb. 1 To clear from an accusation, suspicion or criticism. 2 To justify by providing evidence.

WordNet
vindicate
  1. v. show to be right by providing justification or proof; "vindicate a claim" [syn: justify]

  2. maintain, uphold, or defend; "vindicate the rights of the citizens"

  3. clear of accusation, blame, suspicion, or doubt with supporting proof; "You must vindicate yourself and fight this libel"

Usage examples of "vindicate".

Fox himself seems to have felt that his cause was not a good one, for after replying to the arguments adduced in favour of the propositions, by Pitt and his supporters, and vindicating himself from the notion of being influenced in his opinion by the favour of the prince, he made a personal attack on the minister, accusing him with sacrificing the principles of the constitution to his lust of power.

It is probable, however, that neither side actually realized that war was inevitable, and that the other was determined to fight, until the assault on Fort Sumter presented the South as the first aggressor and roused the North to use every possible resource to maintain the government and the imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of the flag over every inch of the territory of the United States.

To banish it, to vindicate in himself the generous inches that all the world had conspired to deny: this was the clamant need of his whole being.

When Korik, Sill, and Doar were defeated by the Illearth Stone and Ravers, they vindicated the ire of the Ramen.

Farm, Fair Oaks, and numerous other battle-fields, in Virginia and elsewhere, right down to Appomattox--the African soldier fought courageously, fully vindicating the War-wisdom of Abraham Lincoln in emancipating and arming the Race.

The treatise on the Euroclydon was designed to vindicate the common reading of Acts, xxvii.

He called upon the ecclesiastical feudatories of the Empire to vindicate the sanctity of oath, to recognize the inviolability of the Christian warrior vowed to crusade.

Across the way, crawling along the barely visible wall of a shop front, hunching itself across the stone blocks as if mired in quicksand, was the guilt he felt at heeding no one but himself as he sought to vindicate both promise and belief a guilt that threatened to rise up and choke him.

Vindicated, Chiun began marching along the corridor once more, Poulette hurrying to keep pace.

While she recaulked the bathroom, she cranked the volume on the television and felt only slightly vindicated when she heard that the Chinooks lost to the Blackhawks four to three.

Of course if the Cilicians did leave town, Rubella would in one sense be vindicated.

Federal commander is vindicated from the charge of bad soldiership by two circumstances which very properly had great weight with him.

Arnauld du Thill grew pale, and everyone expected that Martin Guerre, rejoiced at being vindicated by this public acknowledgment, would raise his wife and embrace her.

The result was a report which amply vindicated the reformers, and suggested remedies which would have gone a long way towards satisfying the Uitlanders.

But he is vindicated, so long as he is not overhasty, because the evidence is consistent with appendicitis, and delay may be fatal.