[syn: quiz, test]
4. show a certain characteristic when tested;
- Example: "He tested positive for HIV"
5. achieve a certain score or rating on a test;
- Example: "She tested high on the LSAT and was admitted to all the good law schools"
6. determine the presence or properties of (a substance);
7. undergo a test;
- Example: "She doesn't test well"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Test \Test\, n. [OE. test test, or cupel, potsherd, F. t[^e]t,
from L. testum an earthen vessel; akin to testa a piece of
burned clay, an earthen pot, a potsherd, perhaps for tersta,
and akin to torrere to patch, terra earth (cf. Thirst, and
Terrace), but cf. Zend tasta cup. Cf. Test a shell,
Testaceous, Tester a covering, a coin, Testy,
T[^e]te-[`a]-t[^e]te.]
1. (Metal.) A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious
metals are melted for trial and refinement.
[1913 Webster]
Our ingots, tests, and many mo. --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
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." --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. Means of trial; as, absence is a test of love.
[1913 Webster]
Each test every light her muse will bear. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
4. That with which anything is compared for proof of its
genuineness; a touchstone; a standard.
[1913 Webster]
Life, force, and beauty must to all impart,
At once the source, and end, and test of art.
--Pope.
[1913 Webster]
5. Discriminative characteristic; standard of judgment;
ground of admission or exclusion.
[1913 Webster]
Our test excludes your tribe from benefit. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
6. Judgment; distinction; discrimination.
[1913 Webster]
Who would excel, when few can make a test
Betwixt indifferent writing and the best? --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[PJC]
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. --Blackstone.
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.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Criterion; standard; experience; proof; experiment;
trial.
Usage: 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.
[1913 Webster]
I leave him to your gracious acceptance, whose
trial shall better publish his commediation.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
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. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Test \Test\, n. [L. testis. Cf. Testament, Testify.]
A witness. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Prelates and great lords of England, who were for the
more surety tests of that deed. --Ld. Berners.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Test \Test\, v. i. [L. testari. See Testament.]
To make a testament, or will. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster] Test
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Test \Test\, Testa \Tes"ta\, n.; pl. E. Tests, L. Testae.
[L. testa a piece of burned clay, a broken piece of
earthenware, a shell. See Test a cupel.]
1. (Zool.) The external hard or firm covering of many
invertebrate animals.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Bot.) The outer integument of a seed; the episperm, or
spermoderm.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Test \Test\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tested; p. pr. & vb. n.
Testing.]
1. (Metal.) To refine, as gold or silver, in a test, or
cupel; to subject to cupellation.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
Experience is the surest standard by which to test
the real tendency of the existing constitution.
--Washington.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Chem.) To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent;
as, to test a solution by litmus paper.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[PJC]
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
test
n 1: trying something to find out about it; "a sample for ten
days free trial"; "a trial of progesterone failed to
relieve the pain" [syn: trial, trial run, test,
tryout]
2: any standardized procedure for measuring sensitivity or
memory or intelligence or aptitude or personality etc; "the
test was standardized on a large sample of students" [syn:
test, mental test, mental testing, psychometric test]
3: a set of questions or exercises evaluating skill or
knowledge; "when the test was stolen the professor had to
make a new set of questions" [syn: examination, exam,
test]
4: the act of undergoing testing; "he survived the great test of
battle"; "candidates must compete in a trial of skill" [syn:
test, trial]
5: the act of testing something; "in the experimental trials the
amount of carbon was measured separately"; "he called each
flip of the coin a new trial" [syn: test, trial, run]
6: a hard outer covering as of some amoebas and sea urchins
v 1: put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental
use to; "This approach has been tried with good results";
"Test this recipe" [syn: test, prove, try, try out,
examine, essay]
2: test or examine for the presence of disease or infection;
"screen the blood for the HIV virus" [syn: screen, test]
3: examine someone's knowledge of something; "The teacher tests
us every week"; "We got quizzed on French irregular verbs"
[syn: quiz, test]
4: show a certain characteristic when tested; "He tested
positive for HIV"
5: achieve a certain score or rating on a test; "She tested high
on the LSAT and was admitted to all the good law schools"
6: determine the presence or properties of (a substance)
7: undergo a test; "She doesn't test well"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
226 Moby Thesaurus words for "test":
Bernreuter personality inventory, Binet-Simon test,
Brown personality inventory, Goldstein-Sheerer test, IQ, IQ test,
Kent mental test, Minnesota preschool scale, Olympic games,
Olympics, Oseretsky test, Pap test, Rorschach test,
Stanford revision, Stanford-Binet test, Szondi test, TAT,
Wechsler-Bellevue intelligence scale, achievement test, acid test,
alpha test, analysis, anatomic diagnosis, apperception test,
aptitude test, armor, assay, assess, association test, audit,
audition, barometer, beta test, biological diagnosis, biopsy,
blank determination, blue book, bout, bring to test, brouillon,
canon, catechize, check, check and doublecheck, check out,
check over, check up on, chitin, clinical diagnosis, collate,
concours, confirm, contest, controlled association test, cortex,
criterion, cross-check, crucial test, crucible, cut and try,
cut-and-try, cytodiagnosis, degree, demonstrate, derby,
determination, diagnosis, differential diagnosis,
digital examination, docimasy, double-check, electrocardiography,
electroencephalography, electromyography, elytron, empirical,
encounter, engagement, episperm, essay, evaluate, evaluation, exam,
examen, examination, examine, experiment, experimental,
experimentation, feeling out, fight, final, final examination,
first draft, free association test, game, games, gauge, give a try,
give a tryout, go, graduated scale, great go, gymkhana, have a go,
hearing, heuristic, hit-or-miss, honors, inkblot test,
intelligence quotient, intelligence test, interest inventory,
interrogate, interview, investigation, joust, kiteflying,
laboratory diagnosis, lorica, lorication, mail, mammography, match,
matching, measure, meet, meeting, mental test, midsemester,
midterm, model, norm, oral, oral examination, ordeal, parameter,
pattern, pericarp, personality test, physical diagnosis,
physical examination, pilot, plate, play around with,
postmortem diagnosis, practice upon, prelim, probation,
probationary, probative, probatory, probe, proof,
protective covering, prove, proving, provisional,
psychological test, pump, put to trial, quantity, query, question,
quiz, rally, reading, readout, recheck, rencontre, research,
road-test, rough draft, rough sketch, rule, run a sample, sample,
scale, scute, scutum, serodiagnosis, shake down, shell, shield,
smear, sounding out, speculative, standard, standardized test,
study, substantiate, take-home examination, taste, tentative,
test case, testa, testing, thematic apperception test, thick skin,
tilt, touchstone, tournament, tourney, trial, trial-and-error,
triple-check, tripos, try, try it on, try out, trying, type,
urinalysis, uroscopy, validate, value, verification, verificatory,
verify, viva, word association test, work-up, worm out of, written,
written examination, yardstick
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
test
n.
1. Real users bashing on a prototype long enough to get thoroughly
acquainted with it, with careful monitoring and followup of the results.
2. Some bored random user trying a couple of the simpler features with a
developer looking over his or her shoulder, ready to pounce on mistakes.
Judging by the quality of most software, the second definition is far more
prevalent. See also demo.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
test
testing
The process of exercising a product to identify
differences between expected and actual behaviour. Typically
testing is bottom-up: unit testing and integration testing
by developers, system testing by testers, and user
acceptance testing by users.
Test coverage attempts to assess how complete a test has
been.
2. The second stage in a generate and test search
algorithm.
[Jargon File]
(2003-09-24)
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
TEST. Something by which to ascertain the truth respecting another thing. 7
Penn. St. Rep. 428; 6 Whart. 284. Vide Religious Test.