assay master

1 definition found

assay master - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Assay \As*say"\, 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]
  
     Usage: 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]
  
     Note: 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]