Assay
(As*say") n. [OF. asai, essai, trial, F. essa. See Essay, 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. (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
29,166&frac23 grams.
Assay
(As*say"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Assayed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Assaying.] [OF. asaier, essaier, F.
essayer, fr. essai. See Assay, n., Essay, 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.
Assay
(As*say"), v. i. To attempt, try, or endeavor. [Archaic. In this sense essay is now commonly
used.]
She thrice assayed to speak.
Dryden.
