not subject to the control of the will; "involuntary manslaughter"; "involuntary servitude"; "an involuntary shudder"; "It (becoming a hero) was involuntary. They sank my boat"- John F.Kennedy
controlled by the autonomic nervous system; without conscious control; "involuntary muscles"; "gave an involuntary start"
moving quickly and lightly; "sleek and agile as a gymnast"; "as nimble as a deer"; "nimble fingers"; "quick of foot"; "the old dog was so spry it was halfway up the stairs before we could stop it"
a note explaining an absence; "he had to get his mother to write an excuse for him"
a defense of some offensive behavior or some failure to keep a promise etc.; "he kept finding excuses to stay"; "every day he had a new alibi for not getting a job"; "his transparent self-justification was unacceptable"
excuse, overlook, or make allowances for; be lenient with; "excuse someone's behavior"; "She condoned her husband's occasional infidelities"
serve as a reason or cause or justification of; "Your need to sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work"; "Her recent divorce may explain her reluctance to date again"
grant exemption or release to; "Please excuse me from this class"
ask for permission to be released from an engagement
accept an excuse for; "Please excuse my dirty hands"
puffed up with vanity; "a grandiloquent and boastful manner"; "overblown oratory"; "a pompous speech"; "pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey"- Newsweek
lofty in style; "he engages in so much tall talk, one never really realizes what he is saying"
concerned with effect or style of writing and speaking; "a rhetorical question is one asked solely to produce an effect (especially to make an assertion) rather than to elicit a reply"
of or relating to rhetoric; "accepted two or three verbal and rhetorical changes I suggested"- W.A.White; "the rhetorical sin of the meaningless variation"- Lewis Mumford