qualify

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To describe by enumerating the characteristics or qualities of; characterize.
2. v. To make competent or eligible for an office, position, or task.
3. v. To declare competent or capable; certify.
4. v. To make legally capable; license.
5. v. To modify, limit, or restrict, as by giving exceptions.
6. v. To make less harsh or severe; moderate. See Synonyms at moderate.
7. v. Grammar To modify the meaning of (a noun, for example).
8. v. To be or become qualified.
9. v. To reach the later stages of a selection process or contest by competing successfully in earlier rounds.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To note the quality or kind of; express or mark a quality of.
2. To impart a certain quality or qualification to; fit for any place, office, or occupation; furnish with the knowledge, skill, or other accomplishment necessary for a purpose.
3. Specifically, to make legally capable; furnish with legal power or capacity: as, to qualify a person for exercising the elective franchise.
4. In logic, to modify by the negative particle or in some similar way.
5. In grammar, to express some quality as belonging to; modify; describe: said of an adjective in relation to a noun, of an adverb in relation to a verb, etc.
6. To limit or modify; restrict; limit by exceptions; come near denying: as, to qualify a statement or an expression; to qualify the sense of words or phrases.
7. To moderate; soothe; abate; soften; diminish; assuage: as, to qualify the rigor of a statute.
8. To modify the quality or strength of; make stronger, dilute, or otherwise fit for taste: as, to qualify liquors.
9. To temper; regulate; control.
10. In Scotch law, to prove; authenticate; confirm.
11. Synonyms To prepare, capacitate. See qualified.
12. 6 and To reduce.
13. To take the necessary steps for rendering one's self capable of holding any office or enjoying any privilege; establish a claim or right to exercise any function.
14. To take the oath of office before entering upon its duties.
15. To make oath to any fact: as, I am ready to qualify to what I have asserted.

Wiktionary

1. v. To describe or characterize something by listing its qualities.
2. v. To make someone, or to become competent or eligible for some position or task.
3. v. To certify or license someone for something.
4. v. To modify, limit, restrict or moderate something; especially to add conditions or requirements for an assertion to be true.
5. v. To mitigate, alleviate (something); to make less disagreeable.
6. v. To compete successfully in some stage of a competition and become eligible for the next stage
7. v. juggling To throw and catch each object at least twice.
8. n. juggling An instance of throwing and catching each prop at least twice.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To make such as is required; to give added or requisite qualities to; to fit, as for a place, office, occupation, or character; to furnish with the knowledge, skill, or other accomplishment necessary for a purpose; to make capable, as of an employment or privilege; to supply with legal power or capacity.
2. v. To give individual quality to; to modulate; to vary; to regulate.
3. v. To reduce from a general, undefined, or comprehensive form, to particular or restricted form; to modify; to limit; to restrict; to restrain.
4. v. Hence, to soften; to abate; to diminish; to assuage; to reduce the strength of, as liquors.
5. v. obsolete To soothe; to cure; -- said of persons.
6. v. To be or become qualified; to be fit, as for an office or employment.
7. v. To obtain legal power or capacity by taking the oath, or complying with the forms required, on assuming an office.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. make fit or prepared
2. v. make more specific
3. v. specify as a condition or requirement in a contract or agreement; make an express demand or provision in an agreement
4. v. add a modifier to a constituent
5. v. prove capable or fit; meet requirements
6. v. pronounce fit or able
7. v. describe or portray the character or the qualities or peculiarities of