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Test tube   /tɛst tub/   Listen
noun
Test  n.  
1.
(Metal.) A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement. "Our ingots, tests, and many mo."
2.
Examination or trial by the cupel; hence, any critical examination or decisive trial; as, to put a man's assertions to a test. "Bring me to the test."
3.
Means of trial; as, absence is a test of love. "Each test every light her muse will bear."
4.
That with which anything is compared for proof of its genuineness; a touchstone; a standard. "Life, force, and beauty must to all impart, At once the source, and end, and test of art."
5.
Discriminative characteristic; standard of judgment; ground of admission or exclusion. "Our test excludes your tribe from benefit."
6.
Judgment; distinction; discrimination. "Who would excel, when few can make a test Betwixt indifferent writing and the best?"
7.
(Chem.) 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.
8.
A set of questions to be answered or problems to be solved, used as a means to measure a person's knowledge, aptitude, skill, intelligence, etc.; in school settings, synonymous with examination or exam; as, an intelligence test. Also used attributively; as a test score, test results.
Test act (Eng. Law), an act of the English Parliament prescribing a form of oath and declaration against transubstantiation, which all officers, civil and military, were formerly obliged to take within six months after their admission to office. They were obliged also to receive the sacrament according to the usage of the Church of England.
Test object (Optics), an object which tests the power or quality of a microscope or telescope, by requiring a certain degree of excellence in the instrument to determine its existence or its peculiar texture or markings.
Test paper.
(a)
(Chem.) Paper prepared for use in testing for certain substances by being saturated with a reagent which changes color in some specific way when acted upon by those substances; thus, litmus paper is turned red by acids, and blue by alkalies, turmeric paper is turned brown by alkalies, etc.
(b)
(Law) An instrument admitted as a standard or comparison of handwriting in those jurisdictions in which comparison of hands is permitted as a mode of proving handwriting.
Test tube. (Chem.)
(a)
A simple tube of thin glass, closed at one end, for heating solutions and for performing ordinary reactions.
(b)
A graduated tube.
Synonyms: Criterion; standard; experience; proof; experiment; trial. Test, Trial. Trial is the wider term; test is a searching and decisive trial. It is derived from the Latin testa (earthen pot), which term was early applied to the fining pot, or crucible, in which metals are melted for trial and refinement. Hence the peculiar force of the word, as indicating a trial or criterion of the most decisive kind. "I leave him to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his commediation." "Thy virtue, prince, has stood the test of fortune, Like purest gold, that tortured in the furnace, Comes out more bright, and brings forth all its weight."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Test tube" Quotes from Famous Books



... may be a test tube, as shown in Fig. 2, or an empty developer tube. If one has neither a test tube nor developer tube, an empty pill bottle may be used. The washers at the ends of the coil can be made of fiber, hard rubber, or wood; or can be taken from an old magnet. ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics
... their game!" he cried, as he smote the table with his fist, thereby nearly upsetting a test tube of acid, which Tom caught just in time. "I knew something crooked was going on, and they thought I'd be so badly overcome in the fire that I wouldn't know, ...
— Tom Swift among the Fire Fighters - or, Battling with Flames from the Air • Victor Appleton
... to expel all the air dissolved in the water and adhering to the solid substances, we first placed our flask in a bath of chloride of calcium in a large cylindrical white iron pot set over a flame. The exit tube of the flask was plunged in a test tube of Bohemian glass three-quarters full of distilled water, and also heated by a flame. We boiled the liquids in the flask and test-tube for a sufficient time to expel all the air contained in them. ...
— The Harvard Classics Volume 38 - Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) • Various
... chapter on gasometric method is used. The method of working is as follows: Fill the two burettes with cold water to a little above the zero mark, place in the bottle about 0.25 gram of the substance to be determined, and in the inner phial or test tube 5 c.c. of dilute sulphuric acid; cork the apparatus tightly and allow to stand for a few minutes; then bring the water to the same level in the two burettes by running out through the clip at the bottom. Read off the level of the liquid in the graduated burette. Turn the bottle over sufficiently ...
— A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. • Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer
... if such be his bent; no doubt they have their value. And by all means let him consult a qualified physician if he fears either that he is overdoing or underdoing his banting. Personally, though, I am satisfied with the plan I tried out, of being my own private test tube. ...
— One Third Off • Irvin S. Cobb


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