Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

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 29,166⅔ grams.

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.

As·say′, v. i. To attempt, try, or endeavor. [Archaic. In this sense essay is now commonly used.]

She thrice assayed to speak. Dryden.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.