Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DEM-ON-STRA'TION, n.

1. The act of demonstrating, or of exhibiting certain proof.
2. The highest degree of evidence; certain proof exhibited, or such proof as establishes a fact or proposition beyond a possibility of doubt, or as shows the contrary position to be absurd or impossible.
3. Indubitable evidence of the senses, or of reason; evidence which satisfies the mind of the certainty of a fact or proposition. Thus, we hold that the works of nature exhibit demonstration of the existence of a God.
4. In logic a series of syllogisms, all whose premises are either definitions, self-evident truths, or propositions already established. – Encyc.
5. Show; exhibition. – Mitford.
6. In anatomy, the exhibition of parts dissected.
7. In military affairs, a movement of troops toward a given point, as if to make an attack.