That lessens the seriousness of something by providing an excuse.

present participle of extenuate

Third-person singular simple present indicative form of extenuate

Made slender or thin; emaciated, wasted.

simple past tense and past participle of extenuate

The action or process of making or becoming thin; an instance of this; a shrunken condition; leanness, emaciation. / (of air, obsolete) Making less dense; rarefaction.

plural of extenuation

Of a person: emaciated, wasted, weakened; of the body or part of it: atrophied, shrunken, withered. / Of a quality or thing: lessened, weakened. / Reduced to poverty; impoverished.

To make (something) less dense, or thinner; also, to lower the viscosity of (something). / To make (someone or something) slender or thin; to emaciate, to waste.

Tending to extenuate.