DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 As·say 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.   --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.
 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.
 Note: ☞ 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.

 Assay ton. A weight of 29.166 + grams used in assaying, for convenience. Since it bears the same relation to the milligram that a ton of 2000 avoirdupois pounds does to the troy ounce, the weight in milligrams of precious metal obtained from an assay ton of ore gives directly the number of ounces to the ton.
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