Also 4 explanacioun. [ad. L. explānātiōn-em, n. of action f. explānāre: see EXPLAIN.]
1. The action or process of explaining; an instance of the same. In explanation of: for the purpose of explaining. † Act of Explanation = Explanatory Act.
1382. Wyclif, Josh., Prol. We han demed … to sitten to the explanacioun of the prophetis.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 478/2. By which explanacions by mouth the people came into ye vndouted trouth.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 229. I pass to the Explanation of the following Table.
1689. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 555. The … parliament … have repealed … the acts of settlement and explanation.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. II. 153. I proceed to the particular explanation of the precept before us.
1769. Junius Lett., xxi. (1807), 99. A few lines in explanation of some passages in my last letter.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 666. The malignity … seemed to require explanation.
2. That which explains, makes clear, or accounts for; a method of explaining or accounting for; a statement that makes things intelligible. Also (as title), a treatise composed for the purpose of explaining.
a. 1610. Healey, Cebes (1636), 109. This explanation resembleth the riddle of Phynx.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., i. 3. I have more at large discoursed in my Explanation of the Mystery of Godliness.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1734), II. 214. The ill effects that were like to follow, on those different Explanations [of the Trinity].
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, i. La Motte now asked for an explanation of the scene.
1856. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., I. vi. 233. Facts are not to be rejected merely because the explanation offered of them proves to be erroneous.
1883. Froude, Short Stud., IV. I. iv. 44. Vast sums were found to have been received … of which no explanation had been given.
Comb. 1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., III. 46. It passes through his own Explanation-strainer.
3. A mutual declaration of the sense of spoken words, motives of actions, etc., with a view to adjust a misunderstanding and reconcile differences; hence, a mutual understanding or reconciliation of parties who have been at variance.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Spectre of Tapp. I shall come to an immediate explanation with your father on the subject.
