Assay

Part of speech: noun (n.)

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. Shak.

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. 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.]

Part of speech: verb (v.)

1. 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.

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.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To attempt, try, or endeavor. [Archaic. In this sense essay is now commonly used.] She thrice assayed to speak. Dryden.