BEAR WITNESS

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bear witness mean? 

• BEAR WITNESS (verb)
  The verb BEAR WITNESS has 2 senses:

1. provide evidence for

2. give testimony in a court of law

  Familiarity information: BEAR WITNESS used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEAR WITNESS (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Provide evidence for

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bear witness; evidence; prove; show; testify

Context example:

Her behavior testified to her incompetence

Hypernyms (to "bear witness" is one way to...):

inform (impart knowledge of some fact, state of affairs, or event to)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "bear witness"):

attest; certify; demonstrate; evidence; manifest (provide evidence for; stand as proof of; show by one's behavior, attitude, or external attributes)

presume (constitute reasonable evidence for)

abduce; adduce; cite (advance evidence for)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s PP
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sense 2

Meaning:

Give testimony in a court of law

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

attest; bear witness; take the stand; testify

Hypernyms (to "bear witness" is one way to...):

declare (state emphatically and authoritatively)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "bear witness"):

vouch (give personal assurance; guarantee)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

Well, it is no doing of mine, Jim, and you must bear witness to that when we go home again.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I am not mad,” I cried energetically; the sun and the heavens, who have viewed my operations, can bear witness of my truth.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

If the room to which my bed was removed were a sentient thing that could give evidence, I might appeal to it at this day—who sleeps there now, I wonder!—to bear witness for me what a heavy heart I carried to it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

During the progress of her disorder, Frederick and I (we were both at home) saw her repeatedly; and from our own observation can bear witness to her having received every possible attention which could spring from the affection of those about her, or which her situation in life could command.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)