Proxy is a substitute. Suppose you have been assigned to deliver an important report before a meeting of your club. On the day of the meeting you are too ill to attend. You therefore call upon another club member to act for you. This club member becomes your proxy and delivers your report to the club meeting.
The use of a proxy is limited almost entirely to business meetings. A stockholder in a corporation who is unable to attend a corporation meeting may request another stockholder to act as a substitute and vote on any issue. This must be a formal request. The person who casts the vote is known as a proxy. The paper that authorizes the substitute to vote is also called a proxy.
In political elections, voting by proxy is forbidden. But at political conventions, many delegates vote by proxy.
In law and the social sciences, an easily measured trait is sometimes said to be a proxy for a trait that is more difficult to measure. For example, in laws that prohibit the drinking of alcohol by minors, a person’s age is a proxy for maturity.
