Qualify

Full definition of qualify

Verb

1. To describe or characterize something by listing its qualities.
2. To make someone, or to become competent or eligible for some position or task.
• MacaulayHe had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in possession.
3. To certify or license someone for something.
4. To modify, limit, restrict or moderate something; especially to add conditions or requirements for an assertion to be true.
• 1598, Shakespeare, O! never say that I was false of heart,Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify
5. (now rare) To mitigate, alleviate (something); to make less disagreeable.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi: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.
6. To compete successfully in some stage of a competition and become eligible for the next stage.
7. To give individual quality to; to modulate; to vary; to regulate.
• Sir Thomas BrowneIt hath no larynx ... to qualify the sound.
8. (juggling) To throw and catch each object at least twice.
   to qualify seven balls you need at least fourteen catches

Antonyms

• unqualify

Related terms

• disqualify
• qualification
• qualifier

Noun