Definition of "demonstrate" []

• To show clearly and deliberately; manifest: demonstrated her skill as a gymnast; demonstrate affection by hugging. (verb-transitive)
• To show to be true by reasoning or adducing evidence; prove: demonstrate a proposition. (verb-transitive)
• To present by experiments, examples, or practical application; explain and illustrate: demonstrated the laws of physics with laboratory equipment. (verb-transitive)
• To show the use of (an article) to a prospective buyer: The salesperson plugged in and demonstrated the vacuum cleaner. (verb-transitive)
• To give a demonstration: described the dance step, then took a partner and demonstrated. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Now, if Judge Douglas will demonstrate somehow that this is popular sovereignty, —the right of one man to make a slave of another, without any right in that other, or anyone else to object, —demonstrate it as Euclid demonstrated propositions, —there is no objection."
• "A glance at some of the Court's business cases this term demonstrate the important role it can play in protecting business from improvident regulation."
• "What we have tried to demonstrate is that individually each assumption on its own is not likely."