test

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A hard external covering, as that of certain amoebas, dinoflagellates, and sea urchins.
• noun A procedure for critical evaluation; a means of determining the presence, quality, or truth of something; a trial.
• noun A series of questions, problems, or physical responses designed to determine knowledge, intelligence, or ability.
• noun A basis for evaluation or judgment.
• noun Chemistry A physical or chemical change by which a substance may be detected or its properties ascertained.
• noun A cupel.
• intransitive verb To subject to a test; try.
• intransitive verb To determine the presence or properties of (a substance).
• intransitive verb To assay (metal) in a cupel.
• intransitive verb To undergo a test.
• intransitive verb To administer a test.
• intransitive verb To achieve a score or rating on tests.
• intransitive verb To exhibit a given characteristic when subjected to a test.

from The Century Dictionary.

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

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

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