PROVE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Prove

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verb

Prove v. t. (past proved; past part. proven; pres. part. proving)

1.

To try or to ascertain by an experiment, or by a test or standard; to test; as, to prove the strength of gunpowder or of ordnance; to prove the contents of a vessel by a standard measure. "Thou hast proved mine heart."

2.

To evince, establish, or ascertain, as truth, reality, or fact, by argument, testimony, or other evidence. "They have inferred much from slender premises, and conjectured when they could not prove."

3.

To ascertain or establish the genuineness or validity of; to verify; as, to prove a will.

4.

To gain experience of the good or evil of; to know by trial; to experience; to suffer. "Where she, captived long, great woes did prove."

5.

(Arith.) To test, evince, ascertain, or verify, as the correctness of any operation or result; thus, in subtraction, if the difference between two numbers, added to the lesser number, makes a sum equal to the greater, the correctness of the subtraction is proved.

6.

(Printing) To take a trial impression of; to take a proof of; as, to prove a page.

Synonyms: To try; verify; justify; confirm; establish; evince; manifest; show; demonstrate.

Prove v. i. (past proved; past part. proven; pres. part. proving)

1.

To make trial; to essay.

2.

To be found by experience, trial, or result; to turn out to be; as, a medicine proves salutary; the report proves false. "The case proves mortal." "So life a winter's morn may prove."

3.

To succeed; to turn out as expected. (Obs.) "The experiment proved not."

See images of 'Prove'

Etymology of 'Prove'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Prove" Quotes from Famous Books

... squadron, with her coal expended, or her machinery rendered useless by any of the numerous accidents to which steam-machinery is so constantly exposed, with her comparatively light rig, and want of stability in consequence of losing so great a weight of coals, she would hardly prove a very formidable opponent. ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... presuppositions on our hands and, being ignorant of the natural causes which have imposed them on the animal mind, we may be offended at them. Their arbitrary and dogmatic character will tempt us to condemn them, and to take for granted that the analysis which undermines them is justified, and will prove fruitful. But this critical assurance in its turn seems to rely on a dubious presupposition, namely, that human opinion must always evolve in a single line, dialectically, providentially, and irresistibly. It is at least conceivable that the opposite should sometimes ...

— Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy - Five Essays • George Santayana

... confirmation. The laws are our gods. Proof must, therefore, be given in a formal manner, by witnesses or written documents. Whoever cannot do this not only lose their case, but are subject to punishment for malicious accusation. Prove your case by witnesses, and you will get your own again." I lost my case, but from regard to the hospitality due to strangers, ...

— Niels Klim's journey under the ground • Baron Ludvig Holberg

... not solve, I should so stubbornly have opposed as unreal all that could be referred to the spiritual! Strange, that at the very time when the thought that I might lose from this life the being I had known scarce a month had just before so appalled me, I should thus complacently sit down to prove that, according to the laws of the nature which my passion obeyed, I must lose for eternity the blessing I now hoped I had won to my life! But how distinctly dissimilar is man in his conduct from man in his systems! ...

— A Strange Story, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... that now, if ever, had come his Day; the Day of which he had dreamed in his despised puppy-hood; the Day in which he could prove that the great dog man's confidence was not misplaced, and that the boy's belief ...

— Baldy of Nome • Esther Birdsall Darling

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