Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Assay
1.
Trial; attempt; essay.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the
assay
than it now seems at distance. Milton.
2.
Examination and determination; test;
as, an
. assay
of bread or wine[Obs.]
This can not be, by no
assay
of reason. Shakespeare
3.
Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried.
[Obs.]
Through many hard
assays
which did betide. Spenser.
4.
Tested purity or value.
[Obs.]
With gold and pearl of rich
assay
. Spenser.
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.
6.
The alloy or metal to be assayed.
Ure.
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
. ☞ Assay is used adjectively or as the first part of a compound; as, assay balance, assay furnace.
Assay master
, an officer who assays or tests gold or silver coin or bullion.
– Assay ton
, a weight of 29,166⅔ grams.
As-say′
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Assayed
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Assaying
.] 1.
To try; to attempt; to apply.
[Obs. or Archaic]
To-night let us
assay
our plot. Shakespeare
Soft words to his fierce passion she
assayed
. Milton.
2.
To affect.
[Obs.]
When the heart is ill
assayed
. Spenser.
3.
To try tasting, as food or drink.
[Obs.]
4.
To subject, as an ore, alloy, or other metallic compound, to chemical or metallurgical examination, in order to determine the amount of a particular metal contained in it, or to ascertain its composition.
As-say′
,Verb.
I.
To attempt, try, or endeavor.
[Archaic. In this sense essay is now commonly used.]
She thrice
assayed
to speak. Dryden.
Webster 1828 Edition
Assay
ASSA'Y
,Noun.
1.
The trial of the goodness, purity, weight, value, &c. of metals or metallic substances. Any operation or experiement for ascertaining the quantity of a precious metal in an ore or mineral. Analysis is a term of more comprehensive import, extending to an examination of the nature and quantities of all parts of the compound.2.
In law, an examination of weights and measures by the standard.3.
Examination; trial; effort; first entrance upon any business; attempt. In these senses, which are found in old authors, now rarely used. [See Essay.]4.
Value; great purity. Obs.ASSA'Y
,Verb.
T.
1.
To try or prove, by examination or experiment, the quantity and purity of metallic substances.2.
To apply to the touchstone.Definition 2024
assay
assay
English
Noun
assay (plural assays)
- Trial, attempt, essay.
- Milton
- I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance.
- Milton
- Examination and determination; test.
- Shakespeare
- This cannot be, by no assay of reason.
- Shakespeare
- The qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something.
- Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried.
- Spenser
- Through many hard assays which did betide.
- Spenser
- Tested purity or value.
- Spenser
- With gold and pearl of rich assay.
- Spenser
- 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.
- The alloy or metal to be assayed.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Ure to this entry?)
Translations
trial, attempt, essay
the qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something
Verb
assay (third-person singular simple present assays, present participle assaying, simple past and past participle assayed)
- (transitive) To attempt (something). [from 14thc.]
- Shakespeare
- To-night let us assay our plot.
- Milton
- Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed.
- 1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, IV , The Sage to the Young Man, ll.5-8:
- Who seest the stark array / And hast not stayed to count / But singly wilt assay / The many-cannoned mount […].
- 2011, ‘All-pro, anti-American’, The Economist, 28 May:
- Speaking before a small crowd beneath antique airplanes suspended in the atrium of the State of Iowa Historical Museum, an effortfully cheerful Mr Romney assayed an early version of a stump speech I imagine will become a staple of his campaign for the Republican nomination, once it "officially" begins some time next week in New Hampshire.
- Shakespeare
- (archaic, intransitive) To try, attempt (to do something). [14th-19thc.]
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts IX:
- When Saul cam to Jerusalem he assayde to cople hymsilfe with the apostles, and they wer all afrayde of hym and beleved not that he was a disciple.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts IX:
- (transitive) To analyze or estimate the composition or value of (a metal, ore etc.). [from 15thc.]
- (obsolete, transitive) To test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight. [15th-17thc.]
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter xviij, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:
- I wold not by my wille that ony of vs were matched with hym / Nay said sir Gawayne not so / it were shame to vs were he not assayed were he neuer soo good a knyghte
- 1977, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Penguin Classics, p.351:
- The marquis, in obsession for his wife, / Longed to expose her constancy to test. / He could not throw the thought away or rest, / Having a marvellous passion to assay her; / Needless, God knows, to frighten and dismay her, / He had assayed her faith enough before / And ever found her good; what was the need / Of heaping trial on her, more and more?
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter xviij, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:
- To affect.
- Spenser
- when the heart is ill assayed
- Spenser
- To try tasting, as food or drink.
Translations
to analyze (a metal, compound)
|
|
to test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight
Derived terms
Derived terms
|