/pɹuːf/, /pɹuf/, /pɹʉːf/
OriginFrom Middle English proof, from Old French prove, from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from Latin probō (“to prove”); see prove; compare also the doublet probe.
- countableAn effort, process, or operation designed to establish or discover a fact or truth; an act of testing; a test; a trial.
“I need proof of your unconditional love. Lend me some dough.”
“1591, Edmund Spenser, Prosopopoia: or, Mother Hubbard's Tale, later also published in William Michael Rossetti, Humorous Poems,
But the false Fox most kindly played his part,
For whatsoever mother-wit”
“France I more praise and love; you are, my lord,
Yourself for horsemanship much famed; and there
You shall have many proofs to shew your skill.”
- uncountableThe degree of evidence which convinces the mind of any truth or fact, and produces belief; a test by facts or arguments which induce, or tend to induce, certainty of the judgment; conclusive evidence; demonstration.
“I'll have some proof.”
“It was a grand sentence of Emanuel Swedenborg, which would alone indicate the greatness of that man's perception, — "It is no proof of a man's understanding to be able to confirm whatever he pleases; ”
“Faith, faith is an island in the setting sun
But proof, yes
Proof is the bottom line for everyone”
- countable, uncountableThe quality or state of having been proved or tried; firmness or hardness which resists impression, or does not yield to force; impenetrability of physical bodies.
- countable, obsolete, uncountableExperience of something.
“But the chaste damzell, that had never priefe / Of such malengine and fine forgerye, / Did easely beleeve her strong extremitye.”
- obsolete, uncountableFirmness of mind; stability not to be shaken.
- countableA proof sheet; a trial impression, as from type, taken for correction or examination.
“And these men scour the printed proof for error, blunder, and misspelling.”
- countable, uncountableA limited-run high-quality strike of a particular coin, originally as a test run, although nowadays mostly for collectors' sets.
- countableA sequence of statements consisting of axioms, assumptions, statements already demonstrated in another proof, and statements that logically follow from previous statements in the sequence, and which concludes with a statement that is the object of the proof.
- countableA process for testing the accuracy of an operation performed. Compare prove, transitive verb, 5.
- countable, obsolete, uncountableArmour of excellent or tried quality, and deemed impenetrable; properly, armour of proof.
“Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof”
- US, countable, uncountableA measure of the alcohol content of liquor. Originally, in Britain, 100 proof was defined as 57.1% by volume (no longer used). In the US, 100 proof means that the alcohol content is 50% of the total volume of the liquid; thus, perfectly pure absolute alcohol would be 200 proof.
- Used in proving or testing.
“a proof load; a proof charge”
- Firm or successful in resisting.
“proof against harm”
“waterproof; bombproof”
“And opportunity I here have had / To try thee, ſift thee, and confeſs have found thee / Proof againſt all temptation as a rock / Of Adamant, and, as a Center, firm / To the utmoſt of meer man both wiſ”
- Being of a certain standard as to alcohol content.
- colloquial, intransitive, transitiveTo proofread.
- transitiveTo make resistant, especially to water.
- transitiveTo test-fire with a load considerably more powerful than the firearm in question's rated maximum chamber pressure, in order to establish the firearm's ability to withstand pressures well in excess of those expected in service without bursting.
- transitiveTo allow (yeast-containing dough) to rise, especially after it has been shaped
- transitiveTo test the activeness of (yeast).
- The 98th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
Formsproofs(plural) · more proof(comparative) · most proof(superlative) · proofs(present, singular, third-person) · proofing(participle, present) · proofed(participle, past) · proofed(past)
Source: Wiktionary