proofs

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of proof.

   Mathematicians spend years developing proofs for famous conjectures.

   The historian assembled proofs that the letter was a forgery.

   Note

   The plural belongs to the countable uses of proof: tests and trials, and the trial impressions taken from type for correction. Where proof means the weight of evidence that produces belief, it is uncountable, so a careful writer asks for more proof rather than more proofs. Firmness of mind, an obsolete use, was uncountable as well and never took this plural.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Trial copies of a document's text and layout, produced for an author or proofreader to review and correct before the full print run.

   Like a dress rehearsal before opening night: a last chance to fix mistakes before the real thing.

   The designer sent the proofs to the author for a final check.

   She spotted a misaligned column while reviewing the proofs.

   Similargalleys, drafts

   Note

   Printing keeps the plural busy, because proofs arrive as a set of trial impressions rather than a single sheet. The work comes in stages: galley proofs are set before the text is divided into pages, and page proofs are set after. In this trade sense the plural is the ordinary form. People speak of checking the proofs, correcting proofs, or sending the proofs back.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of proof.

   The baker proofs the dough overnight in a cool room.

   My editor proofs each chapter twice before approval.

   Note

   Here the spelling doubles as the noun plural, but the verb has its own range. A baker proofs dough or tests yeast, a gunsmith proofs a firearm by test-firing it with an overload, and a manufacturer proofs cloth against water. In the proofreading sense it is colloquial and can stand without an object (she proofs for a living). In edited prose, proofreads is the safer choice.

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