To try; to attempt; to endeavor; to exert one’s power or faculties, or to make an effort to perform any thing. While I this unexampled task essay.

To make experiment of.

To try the value and purity of metals. In this application, the word is now more generally written assay, which see.

A trial; attempt; endeavor; an effort made, or exertion of body or mind, for the performance of any thing. We say, to make an essay. Fruitless our hopes, though pious our essays.

In literature, a composition intended to prove or illustrate a particular subject; usually shorter and less methodical and finished than a system; as an essay on the life and writings of Homer; an essay on fossils; an essay on commerce.

A trial or experiment; as, this is the first essay.

Trial or experiment to prove the qualities of a metal.

First taste of any thing.