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Assay vs Torture - What's the difference?

assay | torture |

As verbs the difference between assay and torture

is that assay is to attempt (something) while torture is .

As a noun assay

is trial, attempt, essay.

assay

English

Noun

(wikipedia assay) (en noun)
  • Trial, attempt, essay.
  • * Milton
    • I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance.
  • Examination and determination; test.
  • * Shakespeare
    • This cannot be, by no assay of reason.
  • The qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something.
  • 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.
  • * Spenser
    • 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.
  • The alloy or metal to be assayed.
    • (Ure)

    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.

    • Derived terms

    * assay office * assay mark * bioassay * immunoassay * radioimmunoassay

    Anagrams

    *

    torture

    English

    (wikipedia torture)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Intentional causing of somebody's experiencing agony.
    • Using large dogs to attack bound, hand-cuffed prisoners is clearly torture .
    In every war there are acts of torture that cause the world to shudder.
    People confess to anything under torture .
  • (chiefly, literary) The "suffering of the heart" imposed by one on another, as in personal relationships.
    • Every time she says 'goodbye' it is torture !

    Derived terms

    * torture chamber *

    Related terms

    * * tort * torta

    Verb

    (tortur)
  • To intentionally inflict severe pain or suffering on (someone).
    • People who torture often have sadistic tendencies.

    Derived terms

    * *

    External links

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