qualify

QUAL'IFY, verb transitive [Latin qualis, such, and facio, to make.] 1. To fit for any place, office, occupation or character; to furnish with the knowledge, skill or other accomplishment necessary for a purpose; as, to qualify a man for a judge, for a minister of state or of the gospel, for a general or admiral. Holiness alone can qualify men for the society of holy beings. 2. To make capable of any employment or privilege; to furnish with legal power or capacity; as, in England, to qualify a man to kill game. 3. To abate; to soften; to diminish; as, to qualify the rigor of a statute. I do no seek to quench your love's hot fire, but qualify the fire's extreme rage. 4. To ease; to assuage. 5. To modify; to restrain; to limit by exceptions; as, to qualify words or expressions, or to qualify the sense of words or phrases. 6. To modify; to regulate; to vary; as, to qualify sounds.