Legal Dictionary

proof

Definition of proof

Etymology

    Middle English proof < Old French prove < Late Latin proba (“a proof”) < Latin probare (“to prove”).

Pronunciation

Noun

proof (countable and uncountable; plural proofs)

  1. (countable) An effort, process, or operation designed to establish or discover a fact or truth; an act of testing; a test; a trial.
  2. (uncountable) The 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.
  3. The quality or state of having been proved or tried; firmness or hardness which resists impression, or doesn't yield to force; impenetrability of physical bodies.
  4. (uncountable, obsolete) Firmness of mind; stability not to be shaken.
  5. (US) A measure of the alcohol content of liquor. Originally, in Britain, 100 proof was defined as 57.1% by volume (not used anymore). In the US, 100 proof means that the alcohol content is 50% of the total volume of the liquid, and thus, absolute alcohol would be 200 proof.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

References:

  1. Wiktionary. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.



SHARE THIS PAGE

TOP LEGAL TERMS THIS WEEK
1.     status quo
2.     landed property
3.     lex situs
4.     lex fori
5.     lex causae
6.     conclusive presumption
7.     pro forma
8.     common stock
9.     abductor
10.     rebuke