1. Someone who sees an event and reports what happened
   "The police interviewed several witnesses to the accident";
   - witnesser [rare], informant
    
2. (law) a person who testifies under oath in a court of law
   "The witness provided crucial evidence in the murder trial"
    
3. (law) a person who attests to the genuineness of a document or signature by adding their own signature
   "The lawyer served as a witness for the contract signing";
   - attestant [formal], attestor, attestator [formal]
    
4. A close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind)
   "the witnesses applauded the performance";
   - spectator, viewer, watcher, looker
    
5. Testimony by word or deed to your religious faith
   "Her charitable work was a witness to her deep religious convictions"

1. Be a witness to
   "She witnessed the accident and had to testify in court"
    
2. Perceive or be contemporaneous with
   "We witnessed Republicans winning the offices";
   - find, see
    
3. (law) give testimony in a court of law
   "The witness took the stand to testify about what she had seen"; "The neighbour bore witness to the crime";
   - testify, attest, take the stand, bear witness
    
4. (law) provide evidence for
   "Her behaviour bore witness to her incompetence";
   - testify, bear witness, prove, evidence, show
    
5. Present personal religious testimony
   "She witnessed to her faith during the church service"
    
6. (law) sign a document to certify that you have seen it being legitimately signed by the main signee
   "The lawyer asked two people to witness the signing of the will"

Derived forms: witnessed, witnessing, witnesses

Type of: actor, beholder, declare, doer, experience, go through, inform, observer, perceiver, percipient, pronounce, see, signatory, signer, speaker, talker, testimony, utterer, verbaliser [Brit], verbalizer, watch, worker

Encyclopedia: Witness