test

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

• 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.
• n. A series of questions, problems, or physical responses designed to determine knowledge, intelligence, or ability.
• n. A basis for evaluation or judgment: "A test of democratic government is how Congress and the president work together” ( Haynes Johnson).
• n. Chemistry A physical or chemical change by which a substance may be detected or its properties ascertained.
• n. Chemistry A reagent used to cause or promote such a change.
• n. Chemistry A positive result obtained.
• n. A cupel.
• transitive v. To subject to a test; try: tested the pen by scribbling on scrap paper; testing job applicants.
• transitive v. To determine the presence or properties of (a substance).
• transitive v. To assay (metal) in a cupel.
• intransitive v. To undergo a test.
• intransitive v. To administer a test: test for acid content; test for the presence of an antibody.
• intransitive v. To achieve a score or rating on tests: tested high on the entrance exams.
• intransitive v. To exhibit a given characteristic when subjected to a test: test positive for the tubercle bacillus.
• n. A hard external covering, as that of certain amoebas, dinoflagellates, and sea urchins.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

• n. A challenge.
• n. An examination, given often during the academic term.
• n. A session in which a product or piece of equipment is examined under everyday or extreme conditions to evaluate its durability, etc.
• n. A Test match.
• n. The external calciferous shell, or endoskeleton, of an echinoderm, e.g. sand dollars and sea urchins. Two sea urchin tests
• n. testa; seed coat
• v. To challenge.
• v. To administer or assign an examination that is given often during the academic term.
• v. To place a product or piece of equipment under everyday and/or extreme conditions and examine it for its durability, etc.
• v. To be shown to be by test.
• v. To make a testament, or will.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• n. A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement.
• n. Examination or trial by the cupel; hence, any critical examination or decisive trial.
• n. Means of trial.
• n. That with which anything is compared for proof of its genuineness; a touchstone; a standard.
• n. Discriminative characteristic; standard of judgment; ground of admission or exclusion.
• n. Judgment; distinction; discrimination.
• n. 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.
• 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.
• n. A witness.
• n. The external hard or firm covering of many invertebrate animals.
• n. The outer integument of a seed; the episperm, or spermoderm.
• intransitive v. To make a testament, or will.
• transitive v. To refine, as gold or silver, in a test, or cupel; to subject to cupellation.
• transitive v. To put to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try
• transitive v. To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent.
• transitive 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.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

• 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.
• 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.
• Specifically, in chem., to examine by the use of some reagent.
• In law, to attest and date: as, a writing duly tested.
• To make a will or testament.
• n.
• n. A test for blood in the urine. On boiling with caustic alkali, the resultant precipitate of phosphates will present a red color.
• 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.
• 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.
• n. An earthen pot in which metals were tried.
• 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.
• n. Examination by the test or cupel; hence, any critical trial or examination: as, a crucial test.
• n. Means of trial; that by which the presence, quality, or genuineness or something is shown; touchstone.
• n. [capitalized] The Test Act of 1673. See phrase below.
• 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.
• n. Judgment; discrimination; distinction.
• n. An apparatus for proving light hydrocarbon oils by heat, to find the temperature at which they evolve explosive vapors; an oil test.
• n. Synonyms and Proof, ordeal, criterion. See inference.
• n. A potsherd.
• n. In zoology, the hard covering of certain animals; a shell; a lorica.
• n. In botany, same as testa, 2.
• n. A witness.
• n. Testimony; evidence.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

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