qualify — English Dictionary

Verb

1. To describe or characterize something by listing its qualities.

   Usage

   • Transitive

2. To successfully fall under some category or description by meeting requisite conditions.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

   Examples

   Descartes's methodism with its regulative criterion leads him to explicitly deny that accidentally true belief qualifies as knowledge.

   But if it is done in conjunction with repointing of the building, the work would probably qualify as a major capital improvement.

3. To make someone competent or eligible for some position or task.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   They usually spoke of this connection as a longing for the purer life of Attic civilization, but that was a delusion which even they recognized — the position of slaves and women hardly qualified Classical antiquity as an ideal of freedom.

4. To become competent or eligible for some position or task.

   Usage

   • Intransitive
   • Reflexive

   Examples

   He had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in possession.

5. To certify or license someone for something.

   Usage

   • Transitive

6. To modify, limit, restrict or moderate something; especially to add conditions or requirements for an assertion to be true.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   O! never say that I was false of heart, Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify

7. To mitigate, alleviate (something); to make less disagreeable.

   Usage

   • Archaic
   • Transitive

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   he balmes and herbes thereto applyde, / And euermore with mighty spels them charmd, / That in short space he has them qualifyde, / And him restor'd to health, that would haue algates dyde.

8. To compete successfully in some stage of a competition and become eligible for the next stage.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

9. To give individual quality to; to modulate; to vary; to regulate.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   It hath no larynx […] to qualify the sound.

10. To throw and catch each object at least twice.

    Usage

    • Transitive

    Examples

    to qualify seven balls you need at least fourteen catches

Noun

1. An instance of throwing and catching each prop at least twice.

Verb

1. prove capable or fit; meet requirements

   Synonyms

   measure up

   Broader terms

   sufficedoanswerserve

2. pronounce fit or able

   Antonyms

   disqualify

   Broader terms

   pronouncelabeljudge

   Examples

   She was qualified to run the marathon

   The nurses were qualified to administer the injections

3. make more specific

   Broader terms

   modify

   Examples

   qualify these remarks

4. make fit or prepared

   Synonyms

   dispose

   Antonyms

   disqualify

   Broader terms

   preparegroomtrain

   Examples

   Your education qualifies you for this job

5. specify as a condition or requirement in a contract or agreement; make an express demand or provision in an agreement

   Synonyms

   stipulateconditionspecify

   Broader terms

   contractundertake

   Examples

   The will stipulates that she can live in the house for the rest of her life

   The contract stipulates the dates of the payments

6. describe or portray the character or the qualities or peculiarities of

   Synonyms

   characterizecharacterise

   Broader terms

   rememberthink of

   Examples

   You can characterize his behavior as that of an egotist

   This poem can be characterized as a lament for a dead lover

7. add a modifier to a constituent

   Synonyms

   modify

   Broader terms

   add