assay
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Anglo-Norman assaier, from assai, from Old French essai.
Pronunciation[edit]
- Rhymes: -eɪ
Noun[edit]
Wikipedia assay (plural assays)
- trial, attempt, essay.
- the qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something
Translations[edit]
trial, attempt, essay
the qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something
Verb[edit]
assay (third-person singular simple present assays, present participle assaying, simple past and past participle assayed)
- (transitive) To attempt (something). [from 14th c.]
- 1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, IV , The Sage to the Young Man, lines 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 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.
- 1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, IV , The Sage to the Young Man, lines 5-8:
- (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.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts IX:
- (transitive) To analyze or estimate the composition or value of (a metal, ore etc.). [from 15th c.]
- (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, 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, Le Morte Darthur, Book IV:
Translations[edit]
to analyze (a metal, compound)
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to test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight
