proxy

[ prok-see ]

noun

, plural prox·ies.

1. the agency, function, or power of a person authorized to act as the deputy or substitute for another.
2. a person authorized to act as a deputy or substitute for another; agent.
3. a written authorization empowering another person to vote or act for the signer, such as at a meeting of stockholders.
4. an ally or confederate who can be relied upon to speak or act in one's behalf.
5. Computer.
   1. a server or program that receives requests, filters them, and forwards them to a network on behalf of another computer or network which it represents under a surrogate IP address: used to provide anonymity or increased security or to carry out intermediate processing.
   2. a placeholder programming object whose function is to delegate the execution of an action to one or more other objects it controls access to, allowing the placeholder to carry out other processing before and after that action.

adjective

1. relating to or having the agency, function, or power of a person authorized to act as the deputy or substitute for another:

   If you are unable to reach the polls, you can choose a proxy voter to cast your ballot for you.

   Because of the distance to be traveled, a proxy groom stood in for the queen's future husband.

2. (especially of a conflict) occurring between states, people, etc., who are directed, influenced, or funded by other states, people, etc.:

   Proxy wars were a major feature of the Cold War.

   The new CEO won control of the company after a proxy battle.

proxy

/ ˈprɒksɪ /

noun

1. a person authorized to act on behalf of someone else; agent

   to vote by proxy

2. the authority, esp in the form of a document, given to a person to act on behalf of someone else
3. See proxy server
   computing short for proxy server

proxy

1. A person authorized to act for another, or the written authorization to act for another.

Notes

Shareholders in corporations may designate proxies to represent them at stockholders ' meetings and vote their shares .

Word History and Origins

Origin of proxy¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English prokesye, procusie, contraction of procuracy “procuration”; procure, -acy

Word History and Origins

Origin of proxy¹

C15: prokesye, contraction of procuracy, from Latin prōcūrātiō procuration; see procure

Example Sentences

You can track it by proxy by looking at organic website traffic growth from target pages.

From Search Engine Watch

Many places — including New York City, the country’s largest school district — are using the rate of tests that come back with a positive result as a proxy for the spread of the virus in the community.

From FiveThirtyEight

It can also be seen as a proxy for how things are faring for the rest of Hong Kong’s financial sector.

From Quartz

Experts generally agree that seizures only represent a fraction of what actually crosses the border, but they can also be a proxy for what is crossing, and tell us a bit about drug prices.

From Voice of San Diego

It’s a reverse proxy service that pre-renders and caches your pages.

From Search Engine Watch

Hoge joined in, waging a proxy battle against a liberal blogger who accused Walker et al. of being scammers.

From The Daily Beast

People who intentionally hurt children for attention can be accused of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

From The Daily Beast

We did not find any evidence, through both DNS lookups and proxy testing, that any of these URLs are blocked.

From The Daily Beast

Forced C-section debates often skirt or even devolve into a proxy pro-choice/pro-life debate, explains Diaz-Tello.

From The Daily Beast

Afghanistan was basically an instrument of the West in its proxy war against the Soviets.

From The Daily Beast

This resolution went, therefore, to abolish the right of peers to vote by proxy.

From Project Gutenberg

He held the rectories of Middle and Whitchurch in Shropshire, but the duties were performed by a proxy.

From Project Gutenberg

Edgar had excused her not staying to throw for herself, but the general proxy, the bookseller, had been successful in her name.

From Project Gutenberg

I have been spoiled for correspondence by Mr. Lewes's goodness in always writing letters for me where a proxy is admissible.

From Project Gutenberg

The suit was still pending in 1427, when the community nominated Jacques d'Arc its authorised proxy, and sent him to Vaucouleurs.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• intermediary
• stand-in
• surrogate