"past exonerative" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Coined by political scientist William Schneider.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "past exonerative",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991, The New York Times Magazine",
          "text": "When deniability is impossible, dissociation is the way, and the past exonerative allows the actor to separate himself from the act.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, National Journal",
          "text": "The President expressed himself in what might be called the past exonerative, a verb tense politicians use when they're in trouble.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, Doug Bandow, Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police, Routledge",
          "text": "Now the past exonerative and other slippery passive usages are rampant (or should that be, are being run rampantly?) throughout the press.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The notional past tense of non-apology apologies like \"mistakes were made\", in which a speaker uses the passive voice (and past tense) and careful wording to avoid imputing intent or blame for a failure."
      ],
      "id": "en-past_exonerative-en-noun-sDdJYXEO",
      "links": [
        [
          "notional",
          "notional"
        ],
        [
          "tense",
          "tense"
        ],
        [
          "non-apology apologies",
          "non-apology"
        ],
        [
          "imputing",
          "impute"
        ],
        [
          "intent",
          "intent"
        ],
        [
          "blame",
          "blame"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "past exonerative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "past exonerative"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Coined by political scientist William Schneider.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "past exonerative",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991, The New York Times Magazine",
          "text": "When deniability is impossible, dissociation is the way, and the past exonerative allows the actor to separate himself from the act.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, National Journal",
          "text": "The President expressed himself in what might be called the past exonerative, a verb tense politicians use when they're in trouble.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, Doug Bandow, Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police, Routledge",
          "text": "Now the past exonerative and other slippery passive usages are rampant (or should that be, are being run rampantly?) throughout the press.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The notional past tense of non-apology apologies like \"mistakes were made\", in which a speaker uses the passive voice (and past tense) and careful wording to avoid imputing intent or blame for a failure."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "notional",
          "notional"
        ],
        [
          "tense",
          "tense"
        ],
        [
          "non-apology apologies",
          "non-apology"
        ],
        [
          "imputing",
          "impute"
        ],
        [
          "intent",
          "intent"
        ],
        [
          "blame",
          "blame"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "past exonerative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "past exonerative"
}