Noun

(testimonies)

(legal) statements made by a witness in court.

* {{quote-news

, date = 21 August 2012 , first = Ed , last = Pilkington , title = Death penalty on trial: should Reggie Clemons live or die? , newspaper = The Guardian , url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/21/death-penalty-trial-reggie-clemons?newsfeed=true , page = , passage = The Missouri prosecutors' case against Clemons, based partly on incriminating testimony given by his co-defendants, was that Clemons was part of a group of four youths who accosted the sisters on the Chain of Rocks Bridge one dark night in April 1991. }}

An account of first-hand experience.

* Milton

[Thou] for the testimony of truth, hast borne / Universal reproach.

In a church service, a personal account, such as of one's conversion.

Witness; evidence; proof of some fact.

* Bible Mark vi. 11

When ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them.

Noun

(en noun)

A rule or principle, especially one governing personal conduct.

* 2006 : , The Gift of Language

** I need hardly point out that Pinker doesn't really believe anything of what he writes, at least if example is stronger evidence of belief than precept .

* 1891 :

** He found a people in the extreme of barbarism living in caves, feeding upon the bloody flesh of animals they killed in hunting; he taught them many things, so that by his example, and for generations after he left them by his precepts , they advanced to high civilization.

(legal) A written command, especially a demand for payment.