n. [ OF. asai, essai, trial, F. essa. See Essay, n. ] 1. Trial; attempt; essay. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ] I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Examination and determination; test; as, an assay of bread or wine. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ] This can not be, by no assay of reason. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ] Through many hard assays which did betide. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ] 4. Tested purity or value. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ] With gold and pearl of rich assay. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ] 6. The alloy or metal to be assayed. Ure. [ 1913 Webster ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ] ☞ Assay is used adjectively or as the first part of a compound; as, assay balance, assay furnace. [ 1913 Webster ] Assay master, an officer who assays or tests gold or silver coin or bullion. -- Assay ton, a weight of 29, 1662/3 grams. [ 1913 Webster ]
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