probate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The process of legally establishing the validity of a will before a judicial authority.
2. n. Judicial certification of the validity of a will.
3. n. An authenticated copy of a will so certified.
4. v. To establish the validity of (a will) by probate.
5. adj. Of or relating to probate or to a probate court: probate law; a probate judge.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Proved; approved.
2. Relating to the proof or establishment of wills and testaments: as, probate duties.
3. n. Proof.
4. n. In law, official proof of a will. The determination of the court before which a will is propounded that the paper is the last will and testament of the deceased, and its admission thereupon to record as such. It determines or implies that the instrument is genuine, and regular in form and execution, and that the testator was competent to make a will, but not usually that the provisions of the will are valid.

Wiktionary

1. n. law The legal process of verifying the legality of a will.
2. n. law A copy of a legally recognised and qualified will.
3. n. Short for probate court.
4. v. transitive To establish the legality of (a will).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete Proof.
2. n. Official proof; especially, the proof before a competent officer or tribunal that an instrument offered, purporting to be the last will and testament of a person deceased, is indeed his lawful act; the copy of a will proved, under the seal of the Court of Probate, delivered to the executors with a certificate of its having been proved.
3. n. The right or jurisdiction of proving wills.
4. adj. Of or belonging to a probate, or court of probate.
5. v. To obtain the official approval of, as of an instrument purporting to be the last will and testament.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. put a convicted person on probation by suspending his sentence
2. n. a judicial certificate saying that a will is genuine and conferring on the executors the power to administer the estate
3. n. the act of proving that an instrument purporting to be a will was signed and executed in accord with legal requirements
4. v. establish the legal validity of (wills and other documents)