Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AS-SESS'MENT, n.

1. A valuation of property or profits of business, for the purpose of taxation. An assessment is a valuation made by authorized persons according to their discretion, as opposed to a sum certain or determined by law. It may be a direct charge of the tax to be paid; or a valuation of the property of those who are to pay the tax, for the purpose of fixing the proportion which each man shall pay; on which valuation the law imposes a specific sum upon a given amount. – Blackstone. Laws of the United States.
2. A tax or specific sum charged on the person or property.
3. The act of assessing; the act of determining the amount of damages by a jury.