What is "exhibit"

Exhibit \Ex*hib"it\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Exhibited; p. pr. & vb. n. Exhibiting.] [L. exhibitus, p. p. of exhibere to hold forth, to tender, exhibit; ex out + habere to have or hold. See Habit.]

1. To hold forth or present to view; to produce publicly, for inspection; to show, especially in order to attract notice to what is interesting; to display; as, to exhibit commodities in a warehouse, a picture in a gallery.

   Exhibiting a miserable example of the weakness of mind and body.
   --Pope.

2. (Law) To submit, as a document, to a court or officer, in course of proceedings; also, to present or offer officially or in legal form; to bring, as a charge.

   He suffered his attorney-general to exhibit a charge of high treason against the earl.
   --Clarendon.

3. (Med.) To administer as a remedy; as, to exhibit calomel.

   To exhibit a foundation or prize, to hold it forth or to tender it as a bounty to candidates.

   To exibit an essay, to declaim or otherwise present it in public. [Obs.]

Exhibit \Ex*hib"it\, n.

1. Any article, or collection of articles, displayed to view, as in an industrial exhibition; a display; as, this exhibit was marked A; the English exhibit.

2. (Law) A document produced and identified in court for future use as evidence.

"offer or present to view," mid-15c., from Latin exhibitus, past participle of exhibere "to hold out, display, show, present, deliver" (see exhibition). Related: Exhibited; exhibiting.

1620s, "document or object produced as evidence in court," from Latin exhibitum, noun use of neuter past participle of exhibere "to display, show" (see exhibition). Meaning "object displayed in a fair, museum, etc." is from 1862. Transferred use of exhibit A "important piece of evidence" is by 1906.

n. 1 An instance of exhibit#Verb. 2 That which is exhibit#Verb. 3 A public showing; an exhibition. 4 (context legal English) An article formally introduced as evidence in a court. vb. (context transitive English) To display or show (something) for others to see, especially at an exhibition or contest.

1. n. an object or statement produced before a court of law and referred to while giving evidence

2. something shown to the public; "the museum had many exhibits of oriental art" [syn: display, showing]

1. v. show an attribute, property, knowledge, or skill; "he exhibits a great talent"

2. to show, make visible or apparent; "The Metropolitan Museum is exhibiting Goya's works this month"; "Why don't you show your nice legs and wear shorter skirts?"; "National leaders will have to display the highest skills of statesmanship" [syn: expose, display]

3. show or demonstrate something to an interested audience; "She shows her dogs frequently"; "We will demo the new software in Washington" [syn: show, demo, present, demonstrate]

4. walk ostentatiously; "She parades her new husband around town" [syn: parade, march]

Exhibit may refer to:

• Exhibit (legal), evidence in physical form brought before the court.
• Demonstrative evidence, exhibits and other physical forms of evidence used in court to demonstrate, show, depict, inform or teach relevant information to the viewer.
• Exhibit (educational), an object or set of objects on show in a museum, gallery, archive or classroom, typically in a showcase, as part of an exhibition.
• Exhibit (web editing tool), a lightweight structured data publishing framework.
• A Trade show display, or similarly a Trade Show Exhibit.

An exhibit, in a criminal prosecution or a civil trial, is physical or documentary evidence brought before the jury. The artifact or document itself is presented for the jury's inspection. Examples may include a weapon allegedly used in the crime, an invoice or written contract, a photograph, or a video recording.

The main concept behind correct evidence handling is that the item recovered is the same as that produced in the court room.

The usual term applied to such handling is "chain of custody". The term denotes the links in the handling of the exhibit in question. For example, details of the item, the place, date, time it was recovered, and by whom it was recovered - the first link. The subsequent links in the chain refer to anyone required to handle the exhibit, mainly for identification purposes. The final link is the production of the item in court. This particular level of auditable handling is paramount when dealing with items of a forensic nature, as it reduces the opportunity for the defense to challenge the authenticity of the item.

The chain of custody can be less stringent when dealing with property which has a unique identifying feature like a serial number. In such a case, the physical security becomes the main concern of the person recovering the item. Such security is normally achieved by booking the item into a central evidence room.

The exhibits in any one law case are often labelled Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C, etc. to distinguish between them.

Exhibit (part of the SIMILE Project) is a lightweight, structured-data publishing framework that allows developers to create web pages with support for sorting, filtering and rich visualizations. Oriented towards semantic web-type problems, Exhibit can be implemented by writing rich data out to HTML then configuring some CSS and Javascript code.

An exhibit is an object, work of art, activity, artifact or poster designed to demonstrate a concept or show an example. Exhibits are usually housed and shown in a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, park, archive or library. Exhibits may be collected together in an exhibition or shown independently. While most exhibits are permanent or semi-permanent installations, some exhibits—especially exhibits featuring especially fragile or valuable objects, or live animals—may be shown only during a formal presentation, under the close supervision of attendant or educator. Temporary exhibits that are transported from institution to institution are traveling exhibits.

While modern exhibits are largely concerned with preservation, education and demonstration, early exhibits were designed to attract public interest and curiosity. Before the widespread adoption of photography, a single exhibit could attract large crowds. Visitors might even be overcome with Stendhal syndrome, feeling dizzy or overwhelmed by the intense sensory experience of an exhibit. Today, there is still tension between the design of exhibits for educational purposes or for the purpose of attracting and entertaining an audience (see: tourist attraction).

Changes in scholarly communication and the rise of the Internet have led to the creation of digital exhibits. These can include the digital viewing of physical exhibits; video tours of museums, art galleries and other cultural venues; and/or online exhibitions of " born digital" art, models or educational tools. The integration of information technology into museums and archives has also created opportunities for interactive and multimedia experiences inside cultural institutions. Many museums and galleries have extensive online resources that complement or enhance their physical exhibits. For example, in 2009, "Public Poet, Private Man," an online exhibit on the work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was recognized as an outstanding digital exhibit by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ARCL).