Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An emphatic declaration.
  • noun A strong or formal expression of dissent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A solemn or formal declaration of a fact, opinion, or resolution: an asseveration: as, protestations of friendship or of amendment.
  • noun A solemn or formal declaration of dissent; a protest.
  • noun In law, a declaration in pleading, by which the party interposed an oblique allegation or denial of some fact, by protesting that it did or did not exist, and at the same time avoiding a direct affirmation or denial, the object being to admit it for the purpose of the present action only, and reserve the right to deny it in a future action — “an exclusion of a conclusion.”

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of making a protest; a public avowal; a solemn declaration, especially of dissent.
  • noun (Law) Formerly, a declaration in common-law pleading, by which the party interposes an oblique allegation or denial of some fact, protesting that it does or does not exist, and at the same time avoiding a direct affirmation or denial.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a formal solemn objection or other declaration
  • noun law, historical A declaration in common-law pleading, by which the party interposes an oblique allegation or denial of some fact, protesting that it does or does not exist, and at the same time avoiding a direct affirmation or denial.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a formal and solemn declaration of objection
  • noun a strong declaration of protest

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin protestatio.

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Examples

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  • "Protestations of debilitating sloth are common among writers, and more frequent among prolific ones."

    Source: The times Literary supplement

    January 22, 2018