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ANSWER FOR
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Furnish a justifying analysis or explanation
Example:
I can't account for the missing money
Synonyms:
account; answer for
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "answer for" is one way to...):
declare (state emphatically and authoritatively)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Context examples:
Mister Von Bork, you have a great deal to answer for.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You have only two scenes, and as I shall be Cottager, I'll put you in and push you about, and you will do it very well, I'll answer for it.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
You are yourself aware that you will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the Assizes.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
That is your record in this business, Mr. Abe Slaney, and you will answer for it to the law.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“You have already an account to answer for with me,” said Hume, with his sinister sneer, and as he spoke he was swept by the rush of the crowd into my uncle’s very arms.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Dorsetshire! I know very little of Dorsetshire; but, my dear Elinor, I shall be exceedingly glad to know more of it; and I think I can answer for your having Fanny and myself among the earliest and best pleased of your visitors.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
He certainly knew what was right, nor could she fix on any one article of moral duty evidently transgressed; but yet she would have been afraid to answer for his conduct.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Alas! For my feelings as a daughter, all that I know, all that I answer for, is that you can have given him no just cause of offence.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I'll have the answer for you here on Wednesday morning—if he ever deigns to answer you.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I have an answer for you—hear it.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
