assay
[verb a-sey; noun as-ey, a-sey]
- to examine or analyze: to assay a situation; to assay an event.
- Metallurgy. to analyze (an ore, alloy, etc.) in order to determine the quantity of gold, silver, or other metal in it.
- Pharmacology. to subject (a drug) to an analysis for the determination of its potency or composition.
- to judge the quality of; assess; evaluate: to assay someone's efforts.
- to try or test; put to trial: to assay one's strength; to assay one's debating abilities.
- to attempt; try; essay: to assay a dance step.
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- to contain, as shown by analysis, a certain proportion of usually precious metal.
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- Metallurgy. determination of the amount of metal, especially gold or silver, in an ore, alloy, etc.
- a substance undergoing analysis or trial.
- a detailed report of the findings in assaying a substance.
- Archaic. examination; trial; attempt; essay.
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Origin of assay
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words for assay
evaluation, inspection, valuation, assessment, trial, investigation, survey, measurement, test, examination, estimation, appraisal, rating, assess, see, measure, check, size, rate, proveExamples from the Web for assay
Contemporary Examples of assay
But the next afternoon, and perhaps the next, we would return to the same cruxes, and often assay the same options.
Historical Examples of assay
That which would remain in the cupel if one should assay a phantom.
The Devil's DictionaryAmbrose Bierce
If we liken them to gold, she has made her assay and says the gold is pure.
Jesus the ChristJames Edward Talmage
All the places I had to search for her were the stable and the assay office.
The La Chance Mine MysterySusan Carleton Jones
I've seen him like this before—the night he shot our own men in the assay office.
The La Chance Mine MysterySusan Carleton Jones
So one of them brought him the "specimen" and left it for assay.
Seven and Nine years Among the Camanches and ApachesEdwin Eastman
assay
- to subject (a substance, such as silver or gold) to chemical analysis, as in the determination of the amount of impurity
- (tr) to attempt (something or to do something)
- (tr; may take a clause as object) to test, analyse, or evaluateto assay the significance of early childhood experience
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- an analysis, esp a determination of the amount of metal in an ore or the amounts of impurities in a precious metal
- (as modifier)an assay office
- a substance undergoing an analysis
- a written report on the results of an analysis
- a test
- archaic an attempt
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Word Origin for assay
C14: from Old Northern French assai; see essay
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for assay
c.1300, "to try, endeavor, strive; test the quality of," from Anglo-French assaier, from assai (n.), from Old French essai "trial" (see essay).
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"trial, test of quality, test of character," mid-14c., from Anglo-French assai (see assay (v.)). Meaning "analysis" is from late 14c.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
assay
(ăs′ā′, ă-sā′)- Qualitative or quantitative analysis of a substance, especially of an ore or a drug, to determine its components.
- A substance to be so analyzed.
- The result of such an analysis.
- An analysis or examination.
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- To subject a substance to chemical analysis.
- To examine a person's capability by trial or experiment; put to a test.
- To evaluate a situation; assess.
- To attempt; try.
- To be shown by analysis to contain a certain proportion of atoms, molecules, compounds, or precious metal.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
assay
[ăs′ā, ə-sā′]
- A quantitative determination of the amount of a given substance in a particular sample. Assays are regularly used to determine the purity of precious metals. They can be performed by wet methods or dry methods. In the wet method, the sample is dissolved in a reagent, like an acid, until the purified metal is separated out. In the dry method, the sample is mixed with a flux (a substance such as borax or silica that helps lower the melting temperature) and then the sample is heated to the point where impurities in the metal fuse with the flux, leaving the purified metal as a residue.
- A bioassay.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.