- Assay
- Assay As*say", n. [OF. asai, essai, trial, F. essa. See
{Essay}, n.]
1. Trial; attempt; essay. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
2. Examination and determination; test; as, an assay of bread or wine. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
This can not be, by no assay of reason. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
Through many hard assays which did betide. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
4. Tested purity or value. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
With gold and pearl of rich assay. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
5. (Metallurgy) The act or process of ascertaining the proportion of a particular metal in an ore or alloy; especially, the determination of the proportion of gold or silver in bullion or coin. [1913 Webster]
6. The alloy or metal to be assayed. --Ure. [1913 Webster]
Usage: {Assay} and {essay} are radically the same word; but modern usage has appropriated {assay} chiefly to experiments in metallurgy, and {essay} to intellectual and bodily efforts. See {Essay}. [1913 Webster]
Note: Assay is used adjectively or as the first part of a compound; as, assay balance, assay furnace. [1913 Webster]
{Assay master}, an officer who assays or tests gold or silver coin or bullion.
{Assay ton}, a weight of 29,166 2/3 grams. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.