9 definitions found From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Test \Test\, noun [OE. test test, or cupel, potsherd, F. t[^e]t, 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}, {T[^e]te-['a]-t[^e]te}.] 1. (Metal.) 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.) 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. [PJC] {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. Usage: {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. From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Test \Test\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Tested}; p. pr. & vb. n. {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. --Washington. 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. [PJC] From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Test \Test\, noun [L. testis. Cf. {Testament}, {Testify}.] A witness. [Obs.] Prelates and great lords of England, who were for the more surety tests of that deed. --Ld. Berners. From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Test \Test\, verb (used without an object) [L. testari. See {Testament}.] To make a testament, or will. [Obs.] From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Test \Test\, Testa \Tes"ta\, noun; pl. E. {Tests}, L. {Test[ae]}. [L. testa a piece of burned clay, a broken piece of earthenware, a shell. See {Test} a cupel.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) 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. From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]: test noun 1: any standardized procedure for measuring sensitivity or memory or intelligence or aptitude or personality etc; "the test was standardized on a large sample of students" [syn: {mental test}, {mental testing}, {psychometric test}] 2: the act of testing something; "in the experimental trials the amount of carbon was measured separately"; "he called each flip of the coin a new trial" [syn: {trial}, {run}] 3: the act of undergoing testing; "he survived the great test of battle"; "candidates must compete in a trial of skill" [syn: {trial}] 4: trying something to find out about it; "a sample for ten days free trial"; "a trial of progesterone failed to relieve the pain" [syn: {trial}, {trial run}, {tryout}] 5: a set of questions or exercises evaluating skill or knowledge; "when the test was stolen the professor had to make a new set of questions" [syn: {examination}, {exam}] 6: a hard outer covering as of some amoebas and sea urchins verb 1: put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to; "This approach has been tried with good results"; "Test this recipe" [syn: {prove}, {try}, {try out}, {examine}, {essay}] 2: test or examine for the presence of disease or infection; "screen the blood for the HIV virus" [syn: {screen}] 3: examine someone's knowledge of something; "The teacher tests us every week"; "We got quizzed on French irregular verbs" [syn: {quiz}] 4: show a certain characteristic when tested; "He tested positive for HIV" 5: achieve a certain score or rating on a test; "She tested high on the LSAT and was admitted to all the good law schools" 6: determine the presence or properties of (a substance) 7: undergo a test; "She doesn't test well" From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]: 226 Moby Thesaurus words for "test": Bernreuter personality inventory, Binet-Simon test, Brown personality inventory, Goldstein-Sheerer test, IQ, IQ test, Kent mental test, Minnesota preschool scale, Olympic games, Olympics, Oseretsky test, Pap test, Rorschach test, Stanford revision, Stanford-Binet test, Szondi test, TAT, Wechsler-Bellevue intelligence scale, achievement test, acid test, alpha test, analysis, anatomic diagnosis, apperception test, aptitude test, armor, assay, assess, association test, audit, audition, barometer, beta test, biological diagnosis, biopsy, blank determination, blue book, bout, bring to test, brouillon, canon, catechize, check, check and doublecheck, check out, check over, check up on, chitin, clinical diagnosis, collate, concours, confirm, contest, controlled association test, cortex, criterion, cross-check, crucial test, crucible, cut and try, cut-and-try, cytodiagnosis, degree, demonstrate, derby, determination, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, digital examination, docimasy, double-check, electrocardiography, electroencephalography, electromyography, elytron, empirical, encounter, engagement, episperm, essay, evaluate, evaluation, exam, examen, examination, examine, experiment, experimental, experimentation, feeling out, fight, final, final examination, first draft, free association test, game, games, gauge, give a try, give a tryout, go, graduated scale, great go, gymkhana, have a go, hearing, heuristic, hit-or-miss, honors, inkblot test, intelligence quotient, intelligence test, interest inventory, interrogate, interview, investigation, joust, kiteflying, laboratory diagnosis, lorica, lorication, mail, mammography, match, matching, measure, meet, meeting, mental test, midsemester, midterm, model, norm, oral, oral examination, ordeal, parameter, pattern, pericarp, personality test, physical diagnosis, physical examination, pilot, plate, play around with, postmortem diagnosis, practice upon, prelim, probation, probationary, probative, probatory, probe, proof, protective covering, prove, proving, provisional, psychological test, pump, put to trial, quantity, query, question, quiz, rally, reading, readout, recheck, rencontre, research, road-test, rough draft, rough sketch, rule, run a sample, sample, scale, scute, scutum, serodiagnosis, shake down, shell, shield, smear, sounding out, speculative, standard, standardized test, study, substantiate, take-home examination, taste, tentative, test case, testa, testing, thematic apperception test, thick skin, tilt, touchstone, tournament, tourney, trial, trial-and-error, triple-check, tripos, try, try it on, try out, trying, type, urinalysis, uroscopy, validate, value, verification, verificatory, verify, viva, word association test, work-up, worm out of, written, written examination, yardstick From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]: test n. 1. Real users bashing on a prototype long enough to get thoroughly acquainted with it, with careful monitoring and followup of the results. 2. Some bored random user trying a couple of the simpler features with a developer looking over his or her shoulder, ready to pounce on mistakes. Judging by the quality of most software, the second definition is far more prevalent. See also {demo}. From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]: test The process of exercising a product to identify differences between expected and actual behaviour. Typically testing is bottom-up: {unit testing} and {integration testing} by developers, {system testing} by testers, and {user acceptance testing} by users. {Test coverage} attempts to assess how complete a test has been. 2. The second stage in a {generate and test} search {algorithm}. [{Jargon File}] (2003-09-24)

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