justifiablyadv.

1443 in H. Nicolas Proc. & Ordinances Privy Council (1835) V. 243 (MED) Þt þe franchise be seesed as ferforth as it may justifiably be doon.

1610 T. Cooper Converts First Love To Rdr. sig. A Gods gouernment of the world may be more beautifull and glorious, and his will more iustifiably accomplished in the elect and reprobate.

1698 R. South 12 Serm. III. 241 No Man amongst us can justifiably plead Weakness of Conscience in that sense.

1735 H. Fielding Universal Gallant iii. 36 Any-thing which this Lady may not justifiably suffer.

1777 J. Priestley Course of Lect. on Oratory ii. vi. 35 The relations of events to one another..will sometimes unavoidably, and very justifiably, oblige an historian to trace an important even back to the causes that gave birth to it.

1824 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Dec. 664/2 A woman who is not over fastidious in all her personal arrangements..is to me the most justifiably smotherable.

1856 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters IV. 68 An English painter justifiably loves fog, because he is born in a foggy country.

1914 Art Feb. 166 The average dining-room chair..is..justifiably, indeed admirably, designed for anti-soporific purposes.

1995 I. Banks Whit (1996) ii. 26 Our Founder is a wise and remarkable man, and possessed of insights that justifiably put him on the same level as the great prophets of old.