witness to

be (a) witness to (something)

1. To see something happen. I was a witness to many inappropriate situations when I worked in an office. Were you witness to the accident, or did you arrive at the scene after it happened?
2. To be proof of something. The many students on campus these days are a witness to the school's successful rebranding efforts.
See also: witness
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

witness to something

to serve as a witness to some act or deed. I was witness to the beating. We were not witness to any of the activities you have described.
See also: witness
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • be (a) witness to (something)
  • be witness to something
  • witness
  • be in at the death
  • be in at the death/kill
  • under oath
  • on oath
  • on/under oath
  • in at the kill
  • square with someone
References in periodicals archive
The right underpins the requirement for the prosecution witness to be identifiable not only to the defendant, but also to the open court.
* Subpoena the Witness to Testify in Court: Subpoenas must be served on the witness in person.
* Do decide whether you want to help the witness recall all of the facts previously known but perhaps forgotten or if it serves the company's interest for the witness to proceed without a refreshed recollection.
The scheme seeks to enable a witness to give testimony in a judicial setting or to cooperate with law enforcement and investigating agency without fear of intimidation or reprisal.
According to the defendants and their families, it is impossible for the witness to recognize the faces at a distance from 200 to 300 meters.
Counsel should not automatically ask the military judge to grant the most drastic remedy just because the witness did not testify the way counsel wanted the witness to testify.
Compound questions and questions that invite ambiguous answers should be avoided: "Did you see or hear the collision, and did your wife as well?" Avoid open-ended questions that give no hint as to whether the answer would be relevant and that leave the witness to wander with no guidance: "Is there anything else you want to say?"
2004) (requiring witness to provide "strong showing of particularized need"), with Bursey v.
Rather than be witnesses only of the death of their Lord and friend, the disciples were called to witness to his life.
If the case or witness does not justify an in-person interview, send a short questionnaire for the witness to complete.
Make sure that your in-house contact obtains a time commitment from the witness to allow for sufficient preparation.
(46) The ideal, as noted above, was for the witness to give his own account without any prompting.
You may have heard about the DVD called "Stop Snitching" that advocates witness intimidation and that emphasizes its point with an illustration on its back cover showing three dead bodies over the words "snitch prevention" In Baltimore, where this DVD is on sale, Ricky Prince, a witness to a gang shooting who had agreed to testify, was recently shot in the head.
* ATTORNEYS WILL ASK AN EXPERT WITNESS to disclose any information of a personal nature that could diminish their effectiveness.
(59) In this scenario, the state or local agency must surrender its supervision of the witness to federal authorities and, according to the USAM, is requested to reimburse the federal government.