Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Explain

Ex·plain′ (ĕks·plān′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Explained(- plānd′); p. pr. & vb. n. Explaining.] [L. explandare to flatten, spread out, explain; ex out + plandare to make level or plain, planus plain: cf. OF. esplaner, explaner. See Plain,a., and cf. Esplanade.] 1. To flatten; to spread out; to unfold; to expand. [Obs.]

The horse-chestnut is . . . ready to explain its leaf. Evelyn.

2. To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to expound; to unfold and illustrate the meaning of; as, to explain a chapter of the Bible.

Commentators to explain the difficult passages to you. Gay.

To explain away, to get rid of by explanation. "Those explain the meaning quite away." Pope.

Syn. — To expound; interpret; elucidate; clear up.

Ex·plain′, v. i. To give an explanation.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.