vindicate

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vindicātus, perfect passive participle of vindicō (“lay legal claim to something; set free; protect, avenge, punish”), from vim, accusative singular of vīs (“force, power”), + dīcō (“say; declare, state”). See avenge.

verb

1. (transitive) To clear of an accusation, suspicion or criticism.
   to vindicate someone's honor
   As a man of vision, he understood this. Without Cerberus, humanity was doomed to an existence of groveling subservience at the feet of alien masters. Still, there were those who would call what he did criminal. Unethical. Amoral. History would vindicate him, but until it did he and his followers were forced to exist in hiding, working toward their goals in secret. 2008, Drew Karpyshyn, Mass Effect: Ascension, Del Rey Books, →OCLC, page 3
2. (transitive) To justify by providing evidence.
   to vindicate a right, claim or title
   The Ukrainians immediately demanded a goal and their claims were vindicated as replays showed the ball crossed the line before Terry's intervention. Also see: United National Congress, Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad Bissessar: " We have been vindicated, but it is a victory for the people" June 19, 2012, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport
3. (transitive) To maintain or defend (a cause) against opposition.
   to vindicate the rights of labor movement in developing countries
   When Trump's election pulled back the curtain on the rise of the far-right in America, I'd naively assumed the Jewish left would be vindicated. 2019, Eli Valley, “A Springtime of Erasure”, in Jewish Currents, number Fall 2019, page 14
4. (transitive) To provide justification for.
   The violent history of the suspect vindicated the use of force by the police.
5. (transitive) To lay claim to; to assert a right to; to claim.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To liberate; to set free; to deliver.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To avenge; to punish.
   a war to vindicate infidelity