corroborate

present singular third person corroborates · participle present corroborating · participle past corroborated · past corroborated

1. transitiveTo confirm or support something with additional evidence; to attest or vouch for.

   The concurrence of all […]corroborates the same truth.

   1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC

   1 more example

   First, the fireman may be killed. Second, he may not notice the signal at all. Third, in any case he will loyally corroborate his driver and the good old jury will discount that.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

2. transitiveTo make strong; to strengthen.

   As any limb well and duly exercised, grows stronger, the nerves of the body are corroborated thereby.

   1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC

comparative more corroborate · superlative most corroborate

1. obsoleteCorroborated.

   There is no Truſting to the Force of Nature, nor to the Brauery of Words; except it be Corroborate by Cuſtome.

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Custome and Education”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 131

2. obsoleteVigorous, grown strong.

   But how unjust this traducement is (if you will reduce things from popularity of opinion to measure of reason) may appear in that we see men are more curious what they put into a new vessel than into a vessel seasoned, and what mould they lay about a young plant than about a plant corroborate; […]

   a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, “Of the Advancement of Learning”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, […], volume III, London: Longman and Co.; […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 276