Assay

As·say

Assay

n.
  1. Trial; attempt; essay. [Obs.]
    I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance.
  2. Examination and determination; test; as, an assay of bread or wine. [Obs.]
    This can not be, by no assay of reason.
  3. Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried. [Obs.]
    Through many hard assays which did betide.
  4. Tested purity or value. [Obs.]
    With gold and pearl of rich assay.
  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. (Metallurgy)
  6. The alloy or metal to be assayed.

Phrases & Compounds
Assay master
an officer who assays or tests gold or silver coin or bullion.
Assay ton
a weight of 29,166<frac:2_3/ grams.

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

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Assayed; p. pr. & vb. n. Assaying

  1. To try; to attempt; to apply. [Obs. or Archaic]
    To-night let us assay our plot.
    Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed.
  2. To affect. [Obs.]
    When the heart is ill assayed.
  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

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