Did you know?
Proxies and Proxy Servers
Proxy comes from a contracted form of the Middle English word procuracie (meaning “procuration”). A proxy may refer to a person who is authorized to act for another or it may designate the function or authority of serving in another’s stead. In the latter sense, it generally is preceded by the word by (“vote by proxy”).
Proxy has recently taken on meanings in computing, where it is found in such phrases as proxy server, a computer system that facilitates the exchange of data between users on a network.
Synonyms
Examples of proxy in a Sentence
Maytal Eyal, The Atlantic, 27 Jan. 2025
International mediation attempts and pressure, including a U.S. assessment that the RSF and its proxies are committing genocide and sanctions targeting Burhan, have not halted the fighting.
—Jon Gambrell, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2025
Conflicts elsewhere had made Assad’s key allies unable or unwilling to defend him: Russia was preoccupied with its war in Ukraine; Iran was debilitated and powerless to protect its proxies; and Hezbollah, in Lebanon, was weakened by its fight with Israel.
—Volker Perthes, Foreign Affairs, 24 Jan. 2025
Just days after the deal was inked, Iran lashed out through a terrorist proxy.
—John Yoo and John Shu, Newsweek, 23 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for proxy 
Dictionary Entries Near proxy
Cite this Entry
“Proxy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proxy. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
proxy
nounLegal Definition
proxy
nounMiddle English procucie, contraction of procuracie, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin procuratia, alteration of Latin procuratio appointment of another as one's agent
Share