• A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement. • Examination or trial by the cupel; hence, any critical examination or decisive trial; as, to put a man's assertions to a test. • Means of trial; as, absence is a test of love. • That with which anything is compared for proof of its genuineness; a touchstone; a standard. • Discriminative characteristic; standard of judgment; ground of admission or exclusion. • Judgment; distinction; discrimination. • 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 sulphuric acid is the production of a white insoluble precipitate of barium sulphate by means of some soluble barium salt. • To refine, as gold or silver, in a test, or cupel; to subject to cupellation. • 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. • To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent; as, to test a solution by litmus paper. • A witness. • To make a testament, or will. • Alt. of Testa