Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A person authorized to act for another; an agent or substitute.
- n. The authority to act for another.
- n. The written authorization to act in place of another.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The agency of a substitute; the office or authority of one who is deputed to act for another.
- n. One who is deputed to represent or act for another; a deputy.
- n. A document authorizing one person to act as substitute or deputy for another; a written authorization to exercise the powers and prerogatives of others.
- n. That which takes the place of something else; a substitute.
- n. Eccles., same as procuration, 4.
- n. An election, or a day of election.
- To vote or act by proxy, or by the agency of another.
Wiktionary
- adj. Used as a proxy or acting as a proxy.
- n. An agent or substitute authorized to act for another person.
- n. The authority to act for another, especially when written.
- n. sciences A measurement of one physical quantity that is used as an indicator of the value of another
- n. software An interface for a service, especially for one that is remote, resource-intensive, or otherwise difficult to use directly.
- v. To serve as a proxy for.
- v. networking To function as a server for a client device, but pass on the requests to another server for service.
- n. gaming, slang A proximity mine; a mine that explodes when something approaches within a certain distance.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The agency for another who acts through the agent; authority to act for another, esp. to vote in a legislative or corporate capacity.
- n. The person who is substituted or deputed to act or vote for another.
- n. A writing by which one person authorizes another to vote in his stead, as in a corporation meeting.
- n. (Eng. Law) The written appointment of a proctor in suits in the ecclesiastical courts.
- n. (Eccl.), obsolete See Procuration.
- v. rare To act or vote by proxy; to do anything by the agency of another.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a power of attorney document given by shareholders of a corporation authorizing a specific vote on their behalf at a corporate meeting
- n. a person authorized to act for another
Etymologies
- proximity + -y (Wiktionary)
- Middle English proccy, contraction of earlier procracie, annual payment to a prelate, from Anglo-Norman procuracie, from Medieval Latin prōcūrātia, alteration of Latin prōcūrātiō, from prōcūrātus, past participle of prōcūrāre, to take care of; see procure. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“After you install GPass, launching an application using the proxy is as simple as double-clicking the app from inside the GPass interface.”
GPass Boosts Browsing Privacy, Circumvents Censorship And Filters | Lifehacker Australia
“BLITZER: Although yesterday we heard -- we heard Nouri al - Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq, yesterday in an interview with our own Michael Ware, basically equate Iran and the United States, saying he wants both of them to fight what he called their proxy out of Iraq.”
“General Petraeus warned Congress that the U.S. is already fighting what he called a proxy war with Iran.”
“Analyst and newspaper editor Rashed Rahman says the central problem in the relationship is what he calls the "proxy war that the Pakistan military is waging through the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
“If the voting by proxy is true, it should be invalidated.”
Global Voices in English » Korea: Why Did Korean Politicians Fight?
“A desire to explore, even by mechanical proxy, is now a self-indulgence to be resisted, since the end result would only be the imperial spreading of that pollutant known as humankind.”
“Every single trick and programming adjustment all tended to have this effect, whether it be in proxy studies or in the instrumental record.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Why the Historical Warming Numbers Matter
“The records corroborate statements made earlier this month by former borough Mayor Jim Whitaker who said Miller engaged in "proxy voting" in a failed bid to oust state GOP chairman Randy Ruedrich at the 2008 Alaska Republican convention.”
The Huffington Post: Joe Miller: 'I Lied' About Accessing Computers For Political Purposes
“After former Fairbanks borough mayor Jim Whitaker first revealed Miller was involved in "proxy voting" on Ruedrich's fate, the party chairman defended the candidate, saying Whitaker's claim had to be mistaken because there was no vote taking place.”
The Huffington Post: AlaskaDispatch.com: Joe Miller Admits To Lying, But Do Alaskans Care?
“Offense by proxy is a perverse form of holier-than-thou one-upmanship.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘proxy’.
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POL - scandalous (single words only)
acolyte, archrival, backhander, backlash, baksheesh, bashing, boo, bribery, cadre, chicanery, clash, coercion and 256 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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election phrases and words
how election is used,everything
to do with elections,synonymsgeneral election, election petition, election of clerk, election-vote, election fever, election expenses, election district, election-monger, election-mad, election-dust, election-committee, election dinner and 151 more...
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POL - scandalous (words and collocati...
Words and collocations associated with political scandal
blow the whistle, boo, cronyism and rigging, democratic deficit, denigrate, dirty linen, fiasco, finger pointing a..., graft, hidden account, hush money, illicit financing... and 578 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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Words starting with PRO
I've noticed many, many words start with PRO and this is just a collection of them.
professional, pronunciation, Prolagus, probable, prog, proximity, profit, procrastincate, prom, pronoun, promise, proactive and 206 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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NTDW2
yawp, amidships, smug, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, whit, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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Emerson
sacerdotal, stoic, lineament, accost, allude, laudatory, discourse, commendation, befall, oracle, main, Gibeon and 2 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for proxy.

yarb "Moderate Islamist militia" is about as oxymoronical as it gets. Oct 22, 2008
bilby "In 2006, using U.S. trained and funded Ethiopian troops, the Bush administration intervened by proxy in a Somali civil war to oust a relatively moderate Islamist militia on the verge of unifying that desperate country for the first time in a long while. Two years later, the situation has only deteriorated further: the capital Mogadishu is in chaos, militant Islamists have retaken much of the south, those Ethiopian troops are preparing to withdraw, and the Bush-backed government to fall. At least, ten thousand Somalis have died and more than a third of the population, a jump of 77%, needs aid just to survive."
- Tom Engelhardt, 'F is for Failure: The Bush Doctrine in Ruins', 21 Oct 2008. Oct 22, 2008