• Assay

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -eɪ

    Origin

    From Anglo-Norman assaier, from assai, from Old French essai.

    Noun

    assay

    (plural assays)
    1. Trial, attempt, essay.
      • MiltonI am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance.
    2. Examination and determination; test.
      • ShakespeareThis cannot be, by no assay of reason.
    3. The qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something.
    4. Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried.
      • SpenserThrough many hard assays which did betide.
    5. Tested purity or value.
      • SpenserWith gold and pearl of rich assay.
    6. 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.
    7. The alloy or metal to be assayed.

    Full definition of assay

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To attempt (something). from 14th c.
      • ShakespeareTo-night let us assay our plot.
      • MiltonSoft words to his fierce passion she assayed.
      • 1936, , More Poems, IV , The Sage to the Young Man, lines 5-8:Who seest the stark arrayAnd hast not stayed to countBut singly wilt assayThe many-cannoned mount ...
      • 2011, ‘All-pro, anti-American’, The Economist, 28 May 2011: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.
    2. (archaic, intransitive) To try, attempt (to do something). 14th-19th c.
      • 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.
    3. (transitive) To analyze or estimate the composition or value of (a metal, ore etc.). from 15th c.
    4. (obsolete, transitive) To test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight. 15th-17th c.
      • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book IV: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, , 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?
    5. To affect.
      • Spenserwhen the heart is ill assayed
    6. To try tasting, as food or drink.

    Derived terms

    Anagrams

    © Wiktionary
    • © 2013 - 2023 All Rights Reserved