Verb

To attempt (something).

*Shakespeare

*:To-night let us assay our plot.

*Milton

*:Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed .

*1936 , (Alfred Edward Housman), More Poems , IV , The Sage to the Young Man, ll.5-8:

*:Who seest the stark array / And hast not stayed to count / But singly wilt assay / The many-cannoned mount.

*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.

(archaic) To try, attempt ((to) do something).

*1526 , (William Tyndale), 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.

To analyze or estimate the composition or value of (a metal, ore etc.).

(obsolete) To test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight.

*:

*: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 , (Geoffrey Chaucer), (The Canterbury Tales) , 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?

To affect.

*Spenser

*:when the heart is ill assayed

To try tasting, as food or drink.

Verb

(determin)

To set the limits of.

* Bible, Acts xvii. 26

[God] hath determined the times before appointed.

* Francis Bacon

The knowledge of men hitherto hath been determined by the view or sight.

To ascertain definitely; to figure out.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine . The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.}}

To fix the form or character of; to shape; to prescribe imperatively; to regulate; to settle.

* J. Edwards

The character of the soul is determined by the character of its God.

* W. Black

something divinely beautiful that at some time or other might influence or even determine her course of life

To fix the course of; to impel and direct; with a remoter object preceded by to .

Someone else's will determined me to this course.

To bring to a conclusion, as a question or controversy; to settle authoritative or judicial sentence; to decide.

The court has determined the cause.

To resolve on; to have a fixed intention of; also, to cause to come to a conclusion or decision; to lead.

The news of his father's illness determined him to depart immediately.

(logic) To define or limit by adding a differentia.

(obsolete) To bring to an end; to finish.

* Shakespeare

Now, where is he that will not stay so long / Till his friend sickness hath determined me?