prove

prove 1 Prove, try, test, demonstrate are comparable when they mean to establish a given or an implied contention or reach a convincing conclusion by such appropriate means as evidence, argument, or experiment. The same distinctions in implications and connotations are evident in their corresponding nouns proof, trial, test, demonstration when they denote the process or the means by which a contention is established or a convincing conclusion is reached.

Prove and proof (see also INDICATE, REASON n 1) are the most widely useful of these terms, employable not only in reference to contentions and conclusions, but also in reference to persons or things whose quality (as of strength, genuineness, or fitness) is in question. When used in reference to contentions or to conclusions reached by study, they imply that evidence sufficient in amount and sufficiently reliable in its character has been adduced to bring conviction of the truth of the contentions or conclusions and to make other contentions or other conclusions untenable

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this proposition may or may not be true; at present there is certainly no evidence sufficient to prove it true— Russell

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the legislation of the different colonies furnishes positive and indisputable proof of this fact— Taney

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But prove and proof when used in reference to persons or things about which there is doubt in some particular imply the settlement of this doubt or the establishing of certainty of his or its quality by subjecting the thing to an experiment or by giving the person a chance to manifest his quality in experience, or by such means as assaying, verifying, or checking

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we want to realize our spontaneity and prove our powers, for the joy of it— Justice Holmes

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prove a cannon

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proved his courage in action

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put a man's loyalty to the proof

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the proof of the pudding is in the eating

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Try and trial (see also ATTEMPT vb, TRIAL 2) carry implications from their earliest senses of to separate, or the separation of, the good from the bad in a person or thing, and therefore stress not the conclusion reached but the process by which the guilt or innocence of a person is definitely proved, or a thing's genuineness or falsity, its worth or worthlessness, or its degree of strength or validity is definitely established

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try a person for theft

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a boy does not like to be called a fool, and is usually ready to try the question with his fists— Meredith

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some other apparently inaccessible peak on which to try their ardor and endurance— Mais

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the new employee is on trial

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a brief trial of the plan would convince the people of its futility— Ogg & Ray

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Test, both as a verb and as a noun, implies a putting to decisive proof by means of experiment, use, experience, or comparison with a high standard, or through subjection to a thorough examination or trial for the sake of such proof or a determination of the facts

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experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution— Washington

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the first time he made a helmet, he tested its capacity for resisting blows, and battered it out of shape; next time he did not test it but "deemed" it to be a very good helmet— Russell

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one test of a writer's value lies in the series of illusions and superstitions which surround his work— Geismar

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Demonstrate and demonstration (see also SHOW vb 1) imply the conclusive proof of a contention or the reaching of a conclusion about which there can be no doubt. In such usz, prove and demonstrate and their corresponding nouns are not distinguishable except that in demonstrate the emphasis is upon the resulting certainty or formality of method

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[Lyell] first imagined, and then demonstrated, that the geologic agencies are not explosive and cataclysmal, but steady and patient— Eliot

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Analogous words: corroborate, verify, substantiate, Confirm: *justify, warrant

Antonyms: disprove

2 *indicate, betoken, attest, bespeak, argue

Analogous words: evidence, manifest, evince, *show, demonstrate