Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use testify in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Testify means to make a declaration, or give evidence, under oath. Example: “The state wants to bring in ten blood-spatter experts to testify. Your Honor, that is cumulative testimony.”

Examples of testify by meaning

verbTo make a declaration, or give evidence, under oath.

  • Conrad Murray was away, the defense’s propofol expert testified Friday.2011 October 28, Alan Duke, “Michael Jackson gave himself fatal overdose, expert says”, in CNN, archived from the original on 29 Dec 2016
  • It was only after a decade away from Skipton that I was finally able to garner the courage to return and testify against my abuser.2014 August 29, Ruzwana Bashir, “The untold story of how a culture of shame perpetuates abuse. I know, I was a victim”, in Alan Rusbridger...

verbTo be evidence of.

  • Paradoxically, the sharp and unambiguous formulas in which Lenin called for the use of terror and denied the possibility of democracy and freedom testified to the fact that freedom had not yet been completely eradicated.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon...
  • These have usually been explained as testifying to a migration from the Iberian Peninsula to Sardinia in prehistoric times.2025, Cid Swanenvleugel, The Pre-Roman Elements of the Sardinian Lexicon, page 15

More sentences with testify

  • The state wants to bring in ten blood-spatter experts to testify. Your Honor, that is cumulative testimony.From the entry cumulative
  • He submitted his affidavit rather than appearing to testify in court.From the entry affidavit
  • The crime lord dispatched his favorite hatchet man to make sure the witness would not testify.From the entry hatchet man
  • He’s refusing to testify. I think the Mob got to him.From the entry get to
  • The press speculated about whether he would take the stand and testify in his defense.From the entry take the stand
  • The wornness of the old man's clothes testified to his poverty.From the entry wornness
  • Rather than testify in open court, each sailor posted a davy before sailing off.From the entry davy
  • Are you prepared to testify in court?From the entry prepared
  • I agreed to testify without any mental reservation.From the entry mental reservation
  • The prosecutor offered the lieutenant immunity for all the crimes he would testify having known to be planned by the elusive drug baron.From the entry immunity
  • Unless a reliable Lithuanian scholar testifies, these can not be taken at face value.2020 September 26, @crselvakumar1, Twitter. From the entry Wikt
  • Colonel George Rice Trevor testified that the Rebeccas attacked poor-houses as well as tollgates.2019, Marsha R. Robinson, Disobedient Histories in Ancient and Modern Times, page 82. From the entry Rebecca
  • “We both have iPhones, and we both have emojis,” Johnson testified.2015 April 3, Amanda Hess, “Move Over, Banana”, in Salon. From the entry sextually
  • One of the three woman, Maria Garcia, testified she was stabbed 13 times by Genesis Matos-Ramirez.2015 July 10, “Women to face trial over street brawl stabbings”, in Allentown Morning Call. From the entry about that life
  • The diversity of crustaceans testifies to a dramatic Lower Carboniferous eumalacostracan radiation.2015 December 24, “Enigmatic Fossils from the Lower Carboniferous Shrimp Bed, Granton, Scotland”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry eumalacostracan
  • The more likely scenario, the medical examiner testified, was that Dr.2012, Randall Sullivan, Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson, Grove/Atlantic, Inc., →ISBN. From the entry propofol
  • I am a recovered stressaholic and can testify to the addictive nature of stress.1992, Teenage Stress, page 3. From the entry stressaholic
  • Our courts recognize this by refusing to allow a person to testify against his or her spouse.1987 February 8, Robert Storen, “On Being Cozy with Mister Right”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 29, page 12. From the entry inviolate
  • Plaintiff testified that the store greeter was talking in a loud and rude manner.1986, James Cleary, Prosecuting the Shoplifter: A Loss Prevention Strategy, page 220. From the entry greeter
  • Fernald testified here several times that it is the worst flooder in the Columbia River.1955, Hells canyon project, page 758. From the entry flooder
  • Poles and Polesses by the dozen appeared to testify to the events alleged by both.1903 May 16, “Real Name Was Quite Enough: Kataczyna Andrzewska Was Given a Verdict for Other Names Neighbor Called Her. Regular Polish…. From the entry Poless
  • The spreading antlers on the wall testified to a mighty hunter in some past generation.1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter 7, in The House Behind the Cedars. From the entry andiron
  • She was the third former Trump acolyte to agree to testify against the ex-president and others this week.2023 October 25, Stephen Collinson, “Trump rages as former acolytes turn against him under legal heat”, in CNN. From the entry ex-president
  • Anthony Huber, 26, then came at him, struck him with a skateboard, and grabbed his gun, he testified.2021 November 10, Eric Levenson, Brad Parks, Carma Hassan, “Kyle Rittenhouse testifies he knew Joseph Rosenbaum was unarmed but acted in…. From the entry Huber
  • Finally, he saw Gaige Grosskreutz lunge at him and point a pistol at his head, so Rittenhouse shot him, he testified.2021 November 10, Kyle Rittenhouse testifies he knew Joseph Rosenbaum was unarmed but acted in self-defense during fatal shooting, CNN. From the entry Gaige
  • “The C.E.O.s don’t want to be testifying.2020 July 28, “Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google Prepare for Their ‘Big Tobacco Moment’”, in New York Times. From the entry big
  • Hill’s unflappable performance capped an extraordinary two weeks of public testimony, in which 12 witnesses testified during seven public hearings.2019 November 22, Lauren Gambino, “'Absolute fearlessness': women take impeachment spotlight and speak truth as Trump fumes”, in The…. From the entry unflappable
  • Agent Matthews testified that "BIB" stands for "boys in bedroom" and "BIBCAM" typically indicates webcam videos of young boys.2016 February 18, Shirley Padmore Mensah, “Archived copy”, in United States of America v. Giboney, archived from the original on 11 May 2024. From the entry bibcam
  • In contrast, respondents' expert testified that Kannappan's treatment of Romandia during the entire delivery had met all standards of care.2002, Reports of Cases Determined in the Courts of Appeal of the State of California. From the entry Romandia
  • Every one of the bars that testified against the police department during the gayola inquiry was shut down.1998, The American Journey: Derived from retrieving the American past, →ISBN. From the entry gayola
  • Anders testified he saw elevator 2 mislevel at least 25 to 30 times during the two years before the accident.1997, Washington (State). Court of Appeals, Washington Appellate Reports - Volume 89, page 173. From the entry mislevel
  • The very name of the plantain, uatu, the upright fruit, testified to the dignity of the eldest of the gods.1995, Johannes Carl Andersen, Myths and Legends of the Polynesians, Dover Publications, published 1928, page 378. From the entry Tangaroa
  • For heterosexual acts this interpretation of "in Private" is less stringent, as the existence of "lovers'-lanes" so well testifies.1971, “Demand”, in Body Politic, number 1, page 4. From the entry lovers' lane
  • Only one employee testified as to the interrogation.1968, “H. P. Wasson and Company”, in Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, volume 170, page 298. From the entry ire
  • Donovan, with whom she had a date later, testified that she told him that Oswald was “kind of an oddball.”1964, Earl Warren et al., Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, page 685. From the entry oddball
  • Yours is a short life but a merry one — full of testimonials testifying, jingles jingling and slogans slogging.1959, General Electric Company advert in New Scientist, page 509. From the entry minutesworth

Meaning of testify

  1. verb To make a declaration, or give evidence, under oath.
  2. verb To make a statement based on personal knowledge or faith.
  3. verb To be evidence of.

Full definition of testify

Questions about testify in a sentence

How do you use testify in a sentence?
Testify is used as a verb. For example: “The state wants to bring in ten blood-spatter experts to testify. Your Honor, that is cumulative testimony.”
What is a short sentence with testify?
“Are you prepared to testify in court?”
What does testify mean?
Testify means to make a declaration, or give evidence, under oath.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: testify (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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