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Test   /tɛst/   Listen
noun
Test  n.  
1.
(Metal.) A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement. "Our ingots, tests, and many mo."
2.
Examination or trial by the cupel; hence, any critical examination or decisive trial; as, to put a man's assertions to a test. "Bring me to the test."
3.
Means of trial; as, absence is a test of love. "Each test every light her muse will bear."
4.
That with which anything is compared for proof of its genuineness; a touchstone; a standard. "Life, force, and beauty must to all impart, At once the source, and end, and test of art."
5.
Discriminative characteristic; standard of judgment; ground of admission or exclusion. "Our test excludes your tribe from benefit."
6.
Judgment; distinction; discrimination. "Who would excel, when few can make a test Betwixt indifferent writing and the best?"
7.
(Chem.) A reaction employed to recognize or distinguish any particular substance or constituent of a compound, as the production of some characteristic precipitate; also, the reagent employed to produce such reaction; thus, the ordinary test for sulphuric acid is the production of a white insoluble precipitate of barium sulphate by means of some soluble barium salt.
8.
A set of questions to be answered or problems to be solved, used as a means to measure a person's knowledge, aptitude, skill, intelligence, etc.; in school settings, synonymous with examination or exam; as, an intelligence test. Also used attributively; as a test score, test results.
Test act (Eng. Law), an act of the English Parliament prescribing a form of oath and declaration against transubstantiation, which all officers, civil and military, were formerly obliged to take within six months after their admission to office. They were obliged also to receive the sacrament according to the usage of the Church of England.
Test object (Optics), an object which tests the power or quality of a microscope or telescope, by requiring a certain degree of excellence in the instrument to determine its existence or its peculiar texture or markings.
Test paper.
(a)
(Chem.) Paper prepared for use in testing for certain substances by being saturated with a reagent which changes color in some specific way when acted upon by those substances; thus, litmus paper is turned red by acids, and blue by alkalies, turmeric paper is turned brown by alkalies, etc.
(b)
(Law) An instrument admitted as a standard or comparison of handwriting in those jurisdictions in which comparison of hands is permitted as a mode of proving handwriting.
Test tube. (Chem.)
(a)
A simple tube of thin glass, closed at one end, for heating solutions and for performing ordinary reactions.
(b)
A graduated tube.
Synonyms: Criterion; standard; experience; proof; experiment; trial. Test, Trial. Trial is the wider term; test is a searching and decisive trial. It is derived from the Latin testa (earthen pot), which term was early applied to the fining pot, or crucible, in which metals are melted for trial and refinement. Hence the peculiar force of the word, as indicating a trial or criterion of the most decisive kind. "I leave him to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his commediation." "Thy virtue, prince, has stood the test of fortune, Like purest gold, that tortured in the furnace, Comes out more bright, and brings forth all its weight."


Test  n.  A witness. (Obs.) "Prelates and great lords of England, who were for the more surety tests of that deed."


Testa, Test  n.  (pl. E. tests, L. testae)  
1.
(Zool.) The external hard or firm covering of many invertebrate animals. Note: The test of crustaceans and insects is composed largely of chitin; in mollusks it is composed chiefly of calcium carbonate, and is called the shell.
2.
(Bot.) The outer integument of a seed; the episperm, or spermoderm.


verb
Test  v. t.  (past & past part. tested; pres. part. testing)  
1.
(Metal.) To refine, as gold or silver, in a test, or cupel; to subject to cupellation.
2.
To put to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try; as, to test the soundness of a principle; to test the validity of an argument. "Experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution."
3.
(Chem.) To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent; as, to test a solution by litmus paper.
4.
To administer a test (8) to (someone) for the purpose of ascertaining a person's knowledge or skill; especially, in academic settings, to determine how well a student has learned the subject matter of a course of instruction.


Test  v. i.  To make a testament, or will. (Obs.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Test" Quotes from Famous Books



... she, crazed with fear, emitted a piercing shriek and arose so abruptly that he was caught unawares. What with the start the shriek gave him and the uprising of a supposedly inanimate mass, his personal equilibrium was put to the severest test. Indeed, he quite lost it, going first into the air with all the sprawl of a bronco buster, and then landing solidly on his left ear where there wasn't a shred of rug to ease the impact. In a twinkling, however, he was on his feet, apologising to Rachel. ...
— What's-His-Name • George Barr McCutcheon
... Helena was, and often when she was leading her cattle forth to the meadows Prince Fickle rode past her, without ever noticing the poor herd-girl, so engrossed was he in thoughts of his new bride. Then it occurred to Helena to put his heart to the test and to see if it weren't possible to recall herself to him. So one day as Prince Fickle rode by she ...
— The Green Fairy Book • Various
... it seemed so to his contemporaries. [Footnote: Lord Chesterfield appeared not so black to those who lived in his own time as he does to us, for Bishop Warburton dedicated to him his Necessity and Equity of an Established Religion and a Test-Law Demonstrated, and says in his preface: "It is an uncommon happiness when an honest man can congratulate a patriot on his becoming minister," and expresses the hope, that "the temper of the times will suffer your Lordship to be instrumental ...
— The Blunderer • Moliere
... brilliant strategy or for acts of startling courage. The enforced absence of the Danish monarch prevented his army from entering the field, and the patriots had neither arms nor ammunition with which to storm the forts. Both parties, therefore, waited; and the last year was little more than a test to determine the endurance of the contending armies. While, however, this period wants many of the features that make war grand, it is yet instructive if not interesting in its results. The struggle ...
— The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa • Paul Barron Watson
... wicker chairs, straw goods, fruits, photographs, and curios, had been patiently awaiting our return. When they were permitted to come on board they displayed their wares upon the deck and made many sales. Other small craft contained half-naked boys who shouted to us to test their skill as divers by throwing pennies into the clear but deep emerald water, claiming that they could secure the money before it reached the bottom of the bay. We complied with the boys' request ...
— A Trip to the Orient - The Story of a Mediterranean Cruise • Robert Urie Jacob


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