alibi

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: al=i=bi

CIDE DICTIONARY

alibi, n. [L., elsewhere, at another place. See Alias.].

 The plea or mode of defense under which a person on trial for a crime proves or attempts to prove that he was in another place when the alleged act was committed; as, to set up an alibi; to prove an alibi.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

alibi, n. & v.
--n.
1 a claim, or the evidence supporting it, that when an alleged act took place one was elsewhere.
2 disp. an excuse of any kind; a pretext or justification.
--v. (alibis, alibied, alibiing) colloq.
1 tr. provide an alibi or offer an excuse for (a person).
2 intr. provide an alibi.

Etymology

L, = elsewhere

THESAURUS

alibi

alibi out of, apologize for, apology, blind, cloak, color, cop-out, cover, cover story, cover with excuses, cover-up, device, excuse, explain, explanation, facade, feint, front, gloss, guise, handle, lame excuse, lie out of, likely story, locus standi, make apology for, mask, offer excuse for, ostensible motive, out, plea, plead ignorance, poor excuse, pretense, pretension, pretext, protestation, public motive, put-off, refuge, right, screen, semblance, sham, show, smoke screen, squirm out of, stalking-horse, stratagem, subterfuge, trick, varnish, veil, worm out of

ROGET THESAURUS

alibi

Absence

N absence, inexistence, nonresidence, absenteeism, nonattendance, alibi, emptiness, void, vacuum, vacuity, vacancy, tabula rasa, exemption, hiatus, lipotype, truant, absentee, nobody, nobody present, nobody on earth, not a soul, ame qui vive, absent, not present, away, nonresident, gone, from home, missing, lost, wanting, omitted, nowhere to be found, inexistence, empty, void, vacant, vacuous, untenanted, unoccupied, uninhabited, tenantless, barren, sterile, desert, deserted, devoid, uninhabitable, without, minus, nowhere, elsewhere, neither here nor there, in default of, sans, behind one's back, the bird has flown, non est inventus, absence makes the heart grow fonder, absent in body but present in spirit, absento nemo ne nocuisse velit, Achilles absent was Achilles still, aux absents les os, briller par son absence, conspicuous by his absence, in the hope to meet shortly again and make our abs.