Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TEST, n.¹ [L. testa, an earthen pot; It. testa or testo; Fr. têt.]

1. In metallurgy, a large cupel, or a vessel in the nature of a cupel, formed of wood ashes and finely powdered brick dust, in which metals are melted for trial and refinement. Cyc.
2. Trial; examination by the cupel; hence, any critical trial and examination. Thy virtue, prince, has stood the test of fortune / Like purest gold. Addison.
3. Means of trial. Each test and every light her muse will bear. Dryden.
4. That with which any thing is compared for proof of its genuineness; a standard. Life, force and beauty must to all impart, / At once the source, the end and test of art. Pope.
5. Discriminative characteristic; standard. Our test excludes your tribe from benefit. Dryden.
6. Judgment; distinction. Who would excel, when few can make a test / Betwixt indifferent writing and the best? Dryden.
7. In chimistry, a substance employed to detect any unknown constituent of a compound, by causing it to exhibit some known property. Thus ammonia is a test of copper, because it strikes a blue color with that metal, by which a minute quantity of it can be discovered when in combination with other substances. D. Olmsted.