Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried.
Spenser
Through many hard assays which did betide.
Tested purity or value.
With gold and pearl of rich assay.
The act or process of ascertaining the proportion of a particular metal in an ore or alloy; especially, the determination of the proportion of gold or silver in bullion or coin.
Who seest the stark array / And hast not stayed to count / But singly wilt assay / The many-cannoned mount(nb..).
2011, ‘All-pro, anti-American’, The Economist, 28 May:
Speaking before a small crowd beneath antique airplanes suspended in the atrium of the State of Iowa Historical Museum, an effortfully cheerful Mr Romney assayed an early version of a stump speech I imagine will become a staple of his campaign for the Republican nomination, once it "officially" begins some time next week in New Hampshire.
puhekieltä To try, attempt ((m) do something). (defdate)
1526, (w), trans. Bible, Acts IX:
When Saul cam to Jerusalem he assayde to cople hymsilfe with the apostles, and they wer all afrayde of hym and beleved not that he was a disciple.
puhekieltä To analyze or estimate the composition or value of (a metal, ore etc.). (defdate)
puhekieltä To test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight. (defdate)
(RQ:Mlry MrtDrthr):
I wold not by my wille that ony of vs were matched with hym / Nay said sir Gawayne not so / it were shame to vs were he not assayed were he neuer soo good a knyghte
1977, (w), (w), Penguin Classics, p.351:
The marquis, in obsession for his wife, / Longed to expose her constancy to test. / He could not throw the thought away or rest, / Having a marvellous passion to assay her; / Needless, God knows, to frighten and dismay her, / He had assayed her faith enough before / And ever found her good; what was the need / Of heaping trial on her, more and more?