Synonyms

answer for

British

verb

to be liable or responsible for (a person's actions, behaviour, etc)
to vouch for or speak on behalf of (a person)
to suffer or atone for (one's wrongdoing)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

answer for Idioms

Take responsibility for, take charge of, as in The new alarm system has to answer for the security of the grounds . [Late 1200s]
Take the blame for, as in The kids who were caught shoplifting have a lot to answer for . [c. 1200]
To vouch for or sponsor someone, as in I'll answer for John as a reliable employee . [Early 1700s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He also believed they had tried to coerce him, and decided they should have to answer for it publicly.

From The Wall Street Journal

Kelly: I was trying to second guess your answer for this, but I think it's impossible.

From BBC

There are no easy or immediate answers for those problems.

From Barron's

Etiquette expert Nick Leighton says it’s a hard question to answer for a number of reasons.

From MarketWatch

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023