apologize, apologise

t. & i. [Gr. ἀπολογίζομαι ( apologizomai ) = to reckon up, to give an account.] * I. Transitive: To defend. II. Intransitive : To make an acknowledgment of a greater or smaller amount of error (generally the latter), as a moderate atonement for an injury done one. (It is sometimes followed by for , and an obj. case.) "To apologize especially for his insolent language to Gardiner.-Fronde: Hist . Eng . , vol. iii., ch. xvii., p. 70 Sometimes a person apologises for a deed requiring far graver treatment. to apologise for a judicial murder?"-Macaulay: Hist. Eng., ch. xiv.