proxy
Americannoun
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the agency, function, or power of a person authorized to act as the deputy or substitute for another.
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a person authorized to act as a deputy or substitute for another; agent.
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a written authorization empowering another person to vote or act for the signer, such as at a meeting of stockholders.
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an ally or confederate who can be relied upon to speak or act in one's behalf.
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Computer.
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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.
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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.
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adjective
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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.
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(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.
noun
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a person authorized to act on behalf of someone else; agent
to vote by proxy
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the authority, esp in the form of a document, given to a person to act on behalf of someone else
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computing short for proxy server
Discover More
Shareholders in corporations may designate proxies to represent them at stockholders' meetings and vote their shares.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of proxy
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English prokesye, procusie, contraction of procuracy “procuration”; see procure, -acy
Explanation
Don't feel like going to the grocery store today? See if you can send your brother as a proxy, meaning he's a substitute authorized to act for you. Now, don't get crazy about getting your brother to do everything for you. Running your errands is one thing, but if you're a historian and your brother is an accountant, he is not a good proxy for you when you don't feel like researching your book about Napoleon. And you wouldn't be a good proxy for him in his work. A proxy must be well-chosen to truly act on another person's behalf.
Vocabulary lists containing proxy
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (1968)
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This Week in Words: November 26 - December 1, 2017
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It said the school leaned on how applicants answered “hardship” questions — which ask students how they overcame disadvantages — as a proxy for race.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
“Testosterone levels have no place as a proxy for a myriad of physical and mental readiness tests, where capacity and readiness is directly measured,” Redwood concluded.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
Wall Street uses as its proxy for risk the idea of the volatility of returns — if one asset rises and then falls, it is “riskier” than one that doesn’t.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
For management analysts, a useful proxy for consulting work, overall employment grew 12% from 2022 to early 2026, while solo self-employment within the occupation grew more than twice as fast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
“Of course they will, they are used to it now. Do it this minute, sir!” commanded Jo, fearing he might propose a proxy.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
The corsairs, sometimes defining themselves as a naval mujahideen, also acted as mercenaries or proxies.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
The memorandum of understanding gives it plenty before securing commitments of substance on the nuclear program, let alone on missiles or proxies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
"Melt extents and snowlines are proxies for glacier mass balance."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 12, 2026
Options are stock proxies and they let investors control more stock for less money than buying stock.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
Lawyers for each side met with inspectors of elections, whose job it was to approve or eliminate questionable proxies.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.