Cŏn'fir-mā'tion, n.
n. [Lat. confirmatio.]
Sense 1. The act of confirming or giving strength; the act of establishing, settling, or rendering fixed; establishment; proof. “The confirmation of a grant.” Melmoth.
Sense 2. That which confirms; that which gives new strength or assurance; additional evidence; proof; convincing testimony.
Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmation strong As proofs of holy writ. Shak.
Sense 3. The act of rendering valid, or ratifying, by formal assent; as, the confirmation of an appointment to office or of a treaty.
It was found impossible to obtain a repeal of the act of supremacy, without the pope’s explicit confirmation of the abbey lands to their new proprietors. Hallam.
Sense 4. (Eccl.) A rite practiced in Episcopal churches by which a baptized person is admitted, through the laying on of the hands of a bishop, to the full privileges of the church. It is regarded as supplemental to baptism.
This ordinance is called confirmation, because they who duly receive it are confirmed or strengthened for the fulfillment of their Christian duties by the grace therein bestowed upon them. Hook.
Sense 5. (Law.) A conveyance by which a voidable estate is made sure and not voidable, or by which a particular estate is increased; a contract, express or implied, by which a person makes that firm and binding which was before voidable.