a. [f. as prec. + -ORY.] Of statements, evidence, etc.: Adapted or intended to clear from blame or a charge of guilt; apologetic, vindicatory. Const. of.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Pope, Wks. IV. 58. He wrote an exculpatory letter to the Duke.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. IV. vii. Witnesses … exculpatory, inculpatory.
1846. Grote, Greece, I. iii. (1862), I. 67. Two exculpatory pleas.
1848. Blackw. Mag., LXIII. 594. The statement … is not, however, altogether so exculpatory of the French.
