Word.ws English Dictionary

preeve

preeve is the obsolete form of proof.

preeve is the obsolete form of prove.

Meaning of proof

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.
    • I need proof of your unconditional love. Lend me some dough.
    Antonyms:
    disproof
  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.
    • I'll have some proof.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    Synonyms:
    testament, testimony
  3. The 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.
  4. (obsolete) Experience of something.
    • But the chaste damzell, that had never priefe / Of such malengine and fine forgerye, / Did easely beleeve her strong extremitye.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  5. (obsolete, uncountable) Firmness of mind; stability not to be shaken.
  6. (countable) A 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.2010, Andrea Levy, The Long Song, Tinder Press (2017), page 382

See all 20 meanings of proof

Meaning of prove

Verb

prove (third-person singular simple present proves, present participle proving, simple past proved, past participle proved or proven)

  1. (transitive) To demonstrate that something is true or viable; to give proof for; to bear out; to testify.
    • [VV]e are able with playne demonſtration to proue, and vvith reaſon to perſvvade that in tymes paſt our fayth vvas alike, that then vve preached thinges correſpondent vnto the forme of faith already published of vs, ſo that none in this behalfe can repyne or gaynesay vs.1577, Socrates Scholasticus [i.e., Socrates of Constantinople], “Constantinus the Emperour Summoneth the Nicene Councell, it was Held at Nicæa a Citie of Bythnia for the Debatinge of the Controuersie...
    Synonyms:
    substantiate
  2. (intransitive) To turn out; to manifest.
    • It proved to be a cold day.
  3. (copulative) To turn out to be.
    • Have an exit strategy should your calculations prove incorrect.
  4. (transitive) To put to the test, to make trial of.
    • They took the experimental car to the proving-grounds.
  5. (transitive) To ascertain or establish the genuineness or validity of; to verify.
    • to prove a will
  6. (archaic, transitive) To experience.
    • Where she, captived long, great woes did prove.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 34

See all 9 meanings of prove

Forms of preeve

third-person singular presentpreeves
present participlepreeving
past participlepreeved
pastpreeved

Questions about preeve

What is preeve the obsolete form of?
Preeve is the obsolete form of proof.

Words near preeve in the dictionary

  1. preeternal
  2. preeternities
  3. preeternity
  4. preethical
  5. Preeti
  6. preeve
  7. preeved
  8. preeves
  9. preeving
  10. preexamination
  11. preexaminations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preeve (page history and authors); proof (page history and authors); prove (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “preeve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/preeve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.