overjustify

English

Etymology

over- +‎ justify.

Verb

overjustify (third-person singular simple present overjustifies, present participle overjustifying, simple past and past participle overjustified)

1. (transitive) To justify excessively; to provide too much justification for.
2. (transitive, psychology) Specifically, to provide external incentive for an already-internally-motivated behavior, thereby risking the loss of the original motivation.

Usage notes

• This verb is fairly rare, but the derived noun overjustification is somewhat more common.

Derived terms

• overjustification