Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRO-BA'TION, n. [L. probatio.]

1. The act of proving; proof. – Wilkins. Locke.
2. Trial; examination; any proceeding designed to ascertain the truth; in universities, the examination of a student, as to his qualifications for a degree.
3. In a monastic sense, trial or the year of novitiate, which a person must pass in a convent, to prove his virtue and his ability to bear the severities of the rule. – Encyc.
4. Moral trial; the state of man in the present life, in which he has the opportunity of proving his character and being qualified for a happier state. Probation will end with the present life. – Nelson.
5. In America, the trial of a clergyman's qualifications as a minister of the gospel, preparatory to his settlement. We say, a man is preaching on probation.
6. In general, trial for proof, or satisfactory evidence, or the time of trial.