TESTS
Noun
TESTs
plural of TEST
Anagrams
• setts, stets
Noun
tests
plural of test
Verb
tests
Third-person singular simple present indicative form of test
Anagrams
• setts, stets
Noun
Tests
plural of Test
Anagrams
• setts, stets
Source: Wiktionary
TEST
Test, n. Etym: [OE. test test, or cupel, potsherd, F. têt, 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, Tête-
à-tête.]
1. (Metal.)
Definition: A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted
for trial and refinement.
Our ingots, tests, and many mo. Chaucer.
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.
3. Means of trial; as, absence is a test of love.
Each test every light her muse will bear. Dryden.
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. Pope.
5. Discriminative characteristic; standard of judgment; ground of
admission or exclusion.
Our test excludes your tribe from benefit. Dryden.
6. Judgment; distinction; discrimination.
Who would excel, when few can make a test Betwixt indifferent writing
and the best Dryden.
7. (Chem.)
Definition: 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. 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.
Syn.
– 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. Shak.
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.
Test, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tested; p. pr. & vb. n. Testing.]
1. (Metal.)
Definition: 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. Washington.
3. (Chem.)
Definition: To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent; as, to test a
solution by litmus paper.
Test, n. Etym: [L. testis. Cf. Testament, Testify.]
Definition: A witness. [Obs.]
Prelates and great lords of England, who were for the more surety
tests of that deed. Ld. Berners.
Test, v. i. Etym: [L. testari. See Testament.]
Definition: To make a testament, or will. [Obs.]
Test, Tes"ta, n.; pl. E. Tests, L. Testæ. Etym: [L. testa a piece of
burned clay, a broken piece of earthenware, a shell. See Test a
cupel.]
1. (Zoöl.)
Definition: 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.)
Definition: The outer integument of a seed; the episperm, or spermoderm.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition