How to Use rationalize in a Sentence

rationalize

verb

• She knows she shouldn't have done it—she's just trying to rationalize.
• She tried to rationalize her grandson's strange behavior by blaming it on the boy's father.
• Management is thinking of ways to rationalize our system of production.
• He couldn't rationalize buying such an expensive car.
• There are all kinds of ways to think about this and rationalize it.
  — Tom Hoffarth, Orange County Register, 29 Apr. 2017
• There were all kinds of ways that people tried to rationalize the idea that there was a trend against the Democrats among these groups.
  — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2024
• So don't judge your grief, or try to rationalize your way around it.
  — Andrea Park, Allure, 10 Sep. 2018
• Tino tried to rationalize, but Rachel pushed back on him.
  — Haley Kluge, Variety, 20 Sep. 2022
• Get the cold, hard facts, and don’t discount or rationalize them.
  — Alissa Jubelirer, Rolling Stone, 21 Mar. 2023
• But if the ask was something that couldn’t be rationalized away, the direct approach was best.
  — Elliot Ackerman, WIRED, 8 Feb. 2024
• Many people at airports this week thought long and hard about whether to go somewhere and found a way to rationalize it.
  — Tamara Lush, USA TODAY, 24 Dec. 2020
• People like him rationalize their hypocrisies all the time.
  — Nina Metz, chicagotribune.com, 26 July 2021
• In other words, don't try and rationalize moves like this.
  — Jj Kinahan, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024
• There is no way to rationalize the six consecutive losses to the league's two worst teams.
  — Bill Plaschke, latimes.com, 18 May 2018
• The Olympics, which claim to be a movement promoting peace and unity, are used to rationalize the buying and selling of arms.
  — Dvora Meyers, Longreads, 7 Aug. 2020
• The currency mix-up can sort of be rationalized by the fact that Malaysia and the Philippines have banknotes in similar shades of blue.
  — Christopher Bagley, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 Nov. 2018
• Less obvious are those who repeat the cliché in order to rationalize their own choice not to spend on wine.
  — New York Times, 29 Apr. 2021
• Meanwhile, my frontal lobe—the part that takes care of reasoning—is trying to rationalize these thoughts and reduce the fear.
  — Sean Abrams, Men's Health, 22 June 2023
• Is Gettleman’s grade that much higher on Barkley than Chubb to rationalize the No.
  — Conor Orr, SI.com, 18 Apr. 2018
• That allowed the patron saint of the modern GOP (and his successors) to rationalize massive tax cuts for the rich.
  — Yvonne Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Mar. 2021
• That last bit of rationalizing ignores the obvious: This is not a court of law.
  — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 7 Aug. 2019
• Banks need to rationalize use cases aligned to their strategies across both short-term and long-term horizons.
  — Sudhir Pai, Forbes, 15 Mar. 2022
• Romeo masters the art of rationalizing his own crimes by being shocked at them.
  — Colin Covert, star-telegram.com, 10 May 2017
• Even with the Foligno and Hall injuries, Sweeney could have stuck with the status quo and rationalized his reasons for doing so.
  — Chad Finn, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Mar. 2023
• But how and when Trump would fire him — and how it would be rationalized to the public — was the subject of considerable debate.
  — Philip Rucker, Washington Post, 13 May 2017
• One thing Levin doesn’t try to rationalize is what a wild ride the rolling paper industry has given him.
  — Will Yakowicz, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2023
• Hamlin later tried to rationalize his reasons for the message and has since deleted the tweet.
  — Lorenzo Reyes, USA TODAY, 26 Apr. 2022
• The Cavs, though, are rationalizing it this way: three of those Indiana wins came before the trade deadline.
  — cleveland.com, 16 Apr. 2018
• But here’s a thought: why does the president even need to go through the motions of rationalizing his most dubious ideas?
  — Benjamin Hart, Daily Intelligencer, 10 Feb. 2018
• And if Alexander Hamilton was told to equalize something or to rationalize something with other countries, that's a standard.
  — Tax Notes Staff, Forbes, 10 Sep. 2024

Last Updated: 15 Dec 2024