assay master

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

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]