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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



... study compression, to endeavour to turn every moment to the utmost advantage. All these are good theatrical proprieties, and have been the means of recommending the French tragedies as models of perfection to those who in the examination of works of art, measure everything by the dry test of the understanding, rather than listen to the voice of imagination and feeling. It has been unfavourable, in so far as even motion, rapidity, and a continued stretch of expectation, become at length monotonous and ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel
... child," I would say to such a woman, if I might, "remember that the hard test comes when things go wrong, when money fails, when beauty fades. Suppose your beloved falls ill. You cannot go to him, speak to him, minister to him on his bed of pain, though your heart is breaking. Even if he is dying, you can only wait ... wait in anguish of soul for some cold or covert ...
— Possessed • Cleveland Moffett
... admission the patient had a slight jaundice, which disappeared in a few days, and the bile test in the urine was negative on admission. She was rather thin, but otherwise in good physical condition. Her temperature was ...
— Benign Stupors - A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type • August Hoch
... boiling with dilute acid for a long time. Before we leave these vegetable or cellulose fibres, I will give you a means of testing them, so as to enable you to distinguish them broadly from the animal fibres, amongst which are silk, wool, fur, and hair. A good general test to distinguish a vegetable and an animal fibre is the following, which is known as Molisch's test: To a very small quantity, about 0.01 gram, of the well-washed cotton fibre, 1 c.c. of water is added, then two to three drops of a 15 to 20 per ...
— The Chemistry of Hat Manufacturing - Lectures Delivered Before the Hat Manufacturers' Association • Watson Smith
... unreasonable conclusion that the people who submit to such social laws as these are the most stolid, stern and joyless people on the face of the earth. Such are Scotchmen supposed to be, when viewed at a distance. But how do Scotchmen appear when they are seen under a closer light, and judged by the test of personal experience? There are no people more cheerful, more companionable, more hospitable, more liberal in their ideas, to be found on the face of the civilized globe than the very people who submit to the Scotch Sunday! On the six days of the week there is an ...
— The Law and the Lady • Wilkie Collins


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