Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make competent or eligible for an office, position, or task.
  • intransitive verb To declare competent or capable, as to practice a profession; certify.
  • intransitive verb To render deserving of a descriptor by having or enumerating certain necessary characteristics.
  • intransitive verb To modify, limit, or restrict, as by listing exceptions or reservations.
  • intransitive verb To make less harsh or severe; moderate: synonym: moderate.
  • intransitive verb Grammar To modify the meaning of (a noun, for example).
  • intransitive verb To be or become qualified.
  • intransitive verb To reach the later stages of a selection process or contest by competing successfully in earlier rounds.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To note the quality or kind of; express or mark a quality of.
  • To impart a certain quality or qualification to; fit for any place, office, or occupation; furnish with the knowledge, skill, or other accomplishment necessary for a purpose.
  • Specifically, to make legally capable; furnish with legal power or capacity: as, to qualify a person for exercising the elective franchise.
  • In logic, to modify by the negative particle or in some similar way.
  • In grammar, to express some quality as belonging to; modify; describe: said of an adjective in relation to a noun, of an adverb in relation to a verb, etc.
  • To limit or modify; restrict; limit by exceptions; come near denying: as, to qualify a statement or an expression; to qualify the sense of words or phrases.
  • To moderate; soothe; abate; soften; diminish; assuage: as, to qualify the rigor of a statute.
  • To modify the quality or strength of; make stronger, dilute, or otherwise fit for taste: as, to qualify liquors.
  • To temper; regulate; control.
  • In Scotch law, to prove; authenticate; confirm.
  • Synonyms To prepare, capacitate. See qualified.
  • 6 and To reduce.
  • To take the necessary steps for rendering one's self capable of holding any office or enjoying any privilege; establish a claim or right to exercise any function.
  • To take the oath of office before entering upon its duties.
  • To make oath to any fact: as, I am ready to qualify to what I have asserted.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make such as is required; to give added or requisite qualities to; to fit, as for a place, office, occupation, or character; to furnish with the knowledge, skill, or other accomplishment necessary for a purpose; to make capable, as of an employment or privilege; to supply with legal power or capacity.
  • transitive verb To give individual quality to; to modulate; to vary; to regulate.
  • transitive verb To reduce from a general, undefined, or comprehensive form, to particular or restricted form; to modify; to limit; to restrict; to restrain.
  • transitive verb Hence, to soften; to abate; to diminish; to assuage; to reduce the strength of, as liquors.
  • transitive verb obsolete To soothe; to cure; -- said of persons.
  • intransitive verb To be or become qualified; to be fit, as for an office or employment.
  • intransitive verb To obtain legal power or capacity by taking the oath, or complying with the forms required, on assuming an office.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To describe or characterize something by listing its qualities.
  • verb To make someone, or to become competent or eligible for some position or task.
  • verb To certify or license someone for something.
  • verb To modify, limit, restrict or moderate something; especially to add conditions or requirements for an assertion to be true.
  • verb To mitigate, alleviate (something); to make less disagreeable.
  • verb To compete successfully in some stage of a competition and become eligible for the next stage
  • verb juggling To throw and catch each object at least twice.
  • noun juggling An instance of throwing and catching each prop at least twice.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make fit or prepared
  • verb make more specific
  • verb specify as a condition or requirement in a contract or agreement; make an express demand or provision in an agreement
  • verb add a modifier to a constituent
  • verb prove capable or fit; meet requirements
  • verb pronounce fit or able
  • verb describe or portray the character or the qualities or peculiarities of

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From French qualifier (from Old French) and from Middle English qualifien, to specify the time and place of a document's execution, both from Medieval Latin quālificāre, to attribute a quality to : Latin quālis, of such a kind; see quality + Latin -ficāre, -fy.]

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