Words: vindicate

vindicate \vin-di-keyt\, verb:

1. to clear, as from an accusation, imputation, suspicion, or the like
2. to afford justification for; justify
3. to uphold or justify by argument or evidence
4. to assert, maintain, or defend (a right, cause, etc.) against opposition
5. to claim for oneself or another
6. Roman and Civil Law. to regain possession, under claim of title of property through legal procedure, or to assert one's right to possession
7. to get revenge for; avenge
8. Obsolete. to deliver from; liberate
9. Obsolete. to punish

It is scarcely the province of an author to refute the arguments of his censors and vindicate his own productions; but I may be allowed to make here a few observations with which I would have prefaced the first edition, had I foreseen the necessity of such precautions against the misapprehensions of those who would read it with a prejudiced mind or be content to judge it by a hasty glance.
-- The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë

origin: 1525–35; <>vindicātus (ptp. of vindicāre to lay legal claim to (property), to free (someone) from servitude (by claiming him as free), to protect, avenge, punish), equiv. to (s. of vindic-vindex claimant, protector, avenger) + -ātus