Word Direct Answers

What does "assay" mean?

Assay: Examination and determination; test; as, an assay of bread or wine. [Obs.] This can not be, by no assay of reason. Shak.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried. [Obs.] Through many hard assays which did betide. Spenser.
  2. 3.Tested purity or value. [Obs.] With gold and pearl of rich assay. Spenser.
  3. 4.(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.
  4. 5.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.] Note: 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 29.1662/3 grams.
  5. 6.To try; to attempt; to apply. [Obs. or Archaic] To-night let us assay our plot. Shak. Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed. Milton.
  6. 7.To affect. [Obs.] When the heart is ill assayed. Spenser.
  7. 8.To try tasting, as food or drink. [Obs.]
  8. 9.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.
  9. 10.To attempt, try, or endeavor. [Archaic. In this sense essay is now commonly used.] She thrice assayed to speak. Dryden.

Sources