Protestation

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Protestation \Prot`es*ta"tion\, n. [L. protestatio: cf. F.
     protestation. See {Protest}.]
     1. The act of making a protest; a public avowal; a solemn
        declaration, especially of dissent. " The protestation of
        our faith." --Latimer.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. (Law) Formerly, a declaration in common-law pleading, by
        which the party interposes an oblique allegation or denial
        of some fact, protesting that it does or does not exist,
        and at the same time avoiding a direct affirmation or
        denial.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  protestation
       n 1: a formal and solemn declaration of objection; "they finished
            the game under protest to the league president"; "the
            senator rose to register his protest"; "the many
            protestations did not stay the execution" [syn: {protest}]
       2: a strong declaration of protest

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  104 Moby Thesaurus words for "protestation":
     affirmance, affirmation, alibi, allegation, announcement,
     annunciation, apology, assertion, asseveration, averment,
     avouchment, avowal, beef, bitch, blind, boycott, challenge, cloak,
     color, complaint, compunction, conclusion, cover, cover story,
     cover-up, creed, declaration, demonstration, demur, demurrer,
     device, dictum, enunciation, exception, excuse, expostulation,
     facade, feint, front, gloss, grievance, grievance committee, guise,
     handle, howl, indignation meeting, ipse dixit, kick, lame excuse,
     locus standi, manifesto, march, mask, nonviolent protest,
     objection, ostensible motive, picketing, poor excuse, position,
     position paper, positive declaration, predicate, predication,
     pretense, pretension, pretext, proclamation, profession,
     pronouncement, proposition, protest, protest demonstration,
     public motive, put-off, qualm, rally, refuge, remonstrance,
     remonstration, say, say-so, saying, screen, scruple, semblance,
     sham, show, sit-in, smoke screen, squawk, stalking-horse, stance,
     stand, statement, stratagem, strike, subterfuge, teach-in, trick,
     utterance, varnish, veil, vouch, word
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PROTESTATION. An asseveration made by taking God to witness. A protestation 
  is a form of asseveration which approaches very nearly to an oath. Wolff, 
  Inst. Sec. 375.