Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PROVE, v.i.

1. To make trial; to essay. The sons prepare … / To prove by arms whose fate it was to reign. – Dryden.
2. To be found or to have its qualities ascertained by experience or trial; as, a plant or medicine proves salutary.
3. To be ascertained by the event or something subsequent; as, the report proves to be true, or proves to be false. When the inflammation ends in a gangrene, the case proves mortal. – Arbuthnot.
4. To be found true or correct by the result.
5. To make certain; to show; to evince. This argument proves how erroneous is the common opinion.
6. To succeed. If the experiment proved not. [Not in use.] – Bacon.