1. (n.) A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement.

2. (n.) Examination or trial by the cupel; hence, any critical examination or decisive trial; as, to put a man's assertions to a test.

3. (n.) Means of trial; as, absence is a test of love.

4. (n.) That with which anything is compared for proof of its genuineness; a touchstone; a standard.

5. (n.) Discriminative characteristic; standard of judgment; ground of admission or exclusion.

6. (n.) Judgment; distinction; discrimination.

7. (n.) 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 sulfuric acid is the production of a white insoluble precipitate of barium sulphate by means of some soluble barium salt.

8. (v. t.) To refine, as gold or silver, in a test, or cupel; to subject to cupellation.

9. (v. t.) 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.

10. (v. t.) To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent; as, to test a solution by litmus paper.

11. (n.) A witness.

12. (v. i.) To make a testament, or will.

13. (n.) Alt. of Testa