test

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A procedure for critical evaluation; a means of determining the presence, quality, or truth of something; a trial: a test of one's eyesight; subjecting a hypothesis to a test; a test of an athlete's endurance.
2. n. A series of questions, problems, or physical responses designed to determine knowledge, intelligence, or ability.
3. n. A basis for evaluation or judgment: "A test of democratic government is how Congress and the president work together” ( Haynes Johnson).
4. n. Chemistry A physical or chemical change by which a substance may be detected or its properties ascertained.
5. n. Chemistry A reagent used to cause or promote such a change.
6. n. Chemistry A positive result obtained.
7. n. A cupel.
8. v. To subject to a test; try: tested the pen by scribbling on scrap paper; testing job applicants.
9. v. To determine the presence or properties of (a substance).
10. v. To assay (metal) in a cupel.
11. v. To undergo a test.
12. v. To administer a test: test for acid content; test for the presence of an antibody.
13. v. To achieve a score or rating on tests: tested high on the entrance exams.
14. v. To exhibit a given characteristic when subjected to a test: test positive for the tubercle bacillus.
15. n. A hard external covering, as that of certain amoebas, dinoflagellates, and sea urchins.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A test for blood in the urine. On boiling with caustic alkali, the resultant precipitate of phosphates will present a red color.
2. n. For glucose, as in urine, a strip of white woolen cloth steeped in a 1:3 solution of stannous chlorid in water and dried. Such a test strip, dipped into the suspected liquid and then heated to 130° C., turns brown if glucose is present.
3. n. A test for the presence of blood in the intestinal discharges, determined by the production of a blue-violet color on treatment with guaiac and turpentine.
4. n. An earthen pot in which metals were tried.
5. n. Specifically The movable hearth or cupel of a reverberatory furnace, used in separating silver from lead by cupellation (see cupel), according to the method usually followed in England. It consists of an oval wrought-iron frame, about 5 feet long and 2½wide, crossed by several iron bars on the bottom, thus forming a receptacle for the finely powdered bone-ash with which the frame is filled, and in which a cavity is scooped out to hold the melted metal while it is being cupeled. The test rests on a car, on which it is wheeled into its place under the reverberatory furnace when ready for use. The hearth of the German cupellation furnace, on the other hand, is fixed in its place, but is covered by an iron dome, which can be lifted off by the aid of a crane.
6. n. Examination by the test or cupel; hence, any critical trial or examination: as, a crucial test.
7. n. Means of trial; that by which the presence, quality, or genuineness or something is shown; touchstone.
8. n. [capitalized] The Test Act of 1673. See phrase below.
9. n. In chem., a substance which is employed to detect the presence of any ingredient in a compound, by causing it to exhibit some known property; a substance which, being added to another, indicates the chemical nature of that other substance by producing certain changes in appearance and properties; a reagent: thus, infusion of galls is a test of the presence of iron, which it renders evident by the production of a black color in liquids containing that metal; litmus is a test for determining the presence of acids when uncombined or in excess, as its blue color is turned red by acids.
10. n. Judgment; discrimination; distinction.
11. n. An apparatus for proving light hydrocarbon oils by heat, to find the temperature at which they evolve explosive vapors; an oil test.
12. n. Synonyms and Proof, ordeal, criterion. See inference.
13. In metallurgy, to refine, as gold or silver, by means of lead, in a test, by the removal by scorification of all extraneous matter, or in some other way.
14. To put to the test; bring to trial and examination; compare with a standard; try: as, to test the soundness of a principle; to test the validity of an argument; to test a person's loyalty; to test the electrical resistance of a wire.
15. Specifically, in chem., to examine by the use of some reagent.
16. n. A potsherd.
17. n. In zoology, the hard covering of certain animals; a shell; a lorica. Tests are of various textures and substances, generally either chitinous, calcareous, or silicious, sometimes membranous or fibrous. See shell, 2, and skeleton, 1. Specifically— The outermost case or covering of the ascidians, or Tunicata. It is homologous with the house of the appendicularian tunicates, and is remarkable among animal structures in that it is impregnated with a kind of cellulose called tunicin. See cuts under Salpa and cyathozoöid.
18. n. In botany, same as testa, 2.
19. n. A witness.
20. n. Testimony; evidence.
21. In law, to attest and date: as, a writing duly tested.
22. To make a will or testament.

Wiktionary

1. n. A challenge.
2. n. academia An examination, given often during the academic term.
3. n. A session in which a product or piece of equipment is examined under everyday or extreme conditions to evaluate its durability, etc.
4. n. cricket A Test match.
5. n. marine biology The external calciferous shell, or endoskeleton, of an echinoderm, e.g. sand dollars and sea urchins. . Two sea urchin tests
6. n. botany testa; seed coat
7. v. To challenge.
8. v. Academics To administer or assign an examination that is given often during the academic term.
9. v. To place a product or piece of equipment under everyday and/or extreme conditions and examine it for its durability, etc.
10. v. copulative To be shown to be by test.
11. v. obsolete To make a testament, or will.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Metal.) A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement.
2. n. Examination or trial by the cupel; hence, any critical examination or decisive trial.
3. n. Means of trial.
4. n. That with which anything is compared for proof of its genuineness; a touchstone; a standard.
5. n. Discriminative characteristic; standard of judgment; ground of admission or exclusion.
6. n. Judgment; distinction; discrimination.
7. n. (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. n. 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. Also used attributively.
9. v. (Metal.) To refine, as gold or silver, in a test, or cupel; to subject to cupellation.
10. v. To put to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try
11. v. (Chem.) To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent.
12. v. 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.
13. n. obsolete A witness.
14. v. obsolete To make a testament, or will.
15. n. (Zoöl.) The external hard or firm covering of many invertebrate animals.
16. n. (Bot.) The outer integument of a seed; the episperm, or spermoderm.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. undergo a test
2. n. any standardized procedure for measuring sensitivity or memory or intelligence or aptitude or personality etc
3. v. put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to
4. n. the act of testing something
5. n. the act of undergoing testing
6. v. show a certain characteristic when tested
7. n. a hard outer covering as of some amoebas and sea urchins
8. v. test or examine for the presence of disease or infection
9. n. trying something to find out about it
10. n. a set of questions or exercises evaluating skill or knowledge
11. v. achieve a certain score or rating on a test
12. v. examine someone's knowledge of something
13. v. determine the presence or properties of (a substance)