witness

1. 1

   Attestation of a fact or event; testimony.uncountable

   • She can bear witness, since she was there at the time.
2. 2

   One who sees or has personal knowledge of something.countable

   • As a witness to the event, I can confirm that he really said that.
3. 3

   Someone called to give evidence in a court.countable

   • The witness for the prosecution did not seem very credible.
4. 4

   One who is called upon to witness an event or action, such as a wedding or the signing of a document.countable

   • The bridesmaid and best man at a wedding typically serve as the witnesses.
5. 5

   Something that serves as evidence; a sign or token.countable

   • Laban said to Jacob, […] This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness.
   • The bishop [Isidore] was, as far as I am aware, the first off many writers who have appealed to fossil shells imbedded in remote mountains as witnesses to the truth of the Noachian tradition.
6. 6

   A particular version of a text (seen as providing testimony of archetype or other earlier version)countableuncountable

   • Yet there are extremely few, if any, cases of preserved autographs, and textual witnesses (manuscripts) rather distant in time from the creation of the texts are the norm.
7. 7

   An additional database server instance used in failover scenarios to decide whether the mirror should take over.countable

   • Automatic failover requires a witness, either a file share or a SQL Server witness (SQL Server Express may be used as a witness).

1. 1

   To furnish proof of, to show.transitive

   • This certificate witnesses his presence on that day.
2. 2

   To take as evidence.transitive

   • Depression often goes undetected until it is too late . Witness the recent White House suicide.
3. 3

   To see or gain knowledge of through experience.transitive

   • He witnessed the accident.
4. 4

   To present personal religious testimony; to preach at (someone) or on behalf of.intransitive

   • Instead, Niebuhr's God was the God witnessed to in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, the Bible of the Christian world.
5. 5

   To see the execution of (a legal instrument), and subscribe it for the purpose of establishing its authenticity.

   • to witness a bond or a deed

syn. certify