alibi

«alibi» in Mova's school dictionary: proof that a person was somewhere else when a crime… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an alibi, alibis)

meaning for a pupil

1) (law) An alibi is proof that a person was somewhere else when a crime happened, so they could not have done it. tree →

2) (informal) An alibi is an excuse. tree →

sense in the lessons

In detective stories it is a key idea: the detective checks each suspect's alibi. In everyday talk it means any excuse. Phrases: a strong alibi, a cast-iron alibi, check an alibi.

examples

• The butler had an alibi: he was at the shop. tree →
• The detective checked every suspect's alibi. tree →
• Her alibi was proved false by the CCTV. tree →
• "I was with my gran" was his alibi. tree →
• My alibi for being late was the bus. tree →
• A cast-iron alibi cannot be broken. tree →

note

Countable: alibis. From Latin for "elsewhere". Said AL-i-bye.

In the corpora

• Giving a false alibi about where someone was can put them in danger if something goes wrong.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «alibi» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.