Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author.
- noun Something resembling such a composition.
- noun A testing or trial of the value or nature of a thing.
- noun An initial attempt or endeavor, especially a tentative attempt.
- transitive verb To make an attempt at; try.
- transitive verb To subject to a test.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A trial, attempt, or endeavor; an effort made; exertion of body or mind to perform or accomplish anything: as, an essay toward reform; an essay of strength.
- noun An experimental trial; a test.
- noun An assay or test of the qualities of a metal. See
assay , n. - noun In lit., a discursive composition concerned with a particular subject, usually shorter and less methodical and finished than a treatise; a short disquisition: as, an essay on the life and writings of Homer; an essay on fossils; an essay on commerce.
- noun Synonyms Struggle.
- noun Treatise, dissertation, disquisition, paper, tract, tractate. See definition of treatise.
- To make trial of; attempt; exert one's power or faculties upon; put to the test: as, to
essay a difficult feat; to essay the courage of a braggart. - To try and test the value and purity of, as metals. Now written assay (which see).
- Synonyms Undertake, Endeavor, etc. See
attempt .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To exert one's power or faculties upon; to make an effort to perform; to attempt; to endeavor; to make experiment or trial of; to try.
- transitive verb obsolete To test the value and purity of (metals); to assay. See
Assay . - noun An effort made, or exertion of body or mind, for the performance of anything; a trial; attempt.
- noun (Lit.) A composition treating of any particular subject; -- usually shorter and less methodical than a formal, finished treatise
- noun obsolete An assay. See
Assay , n.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A written composition of moderate length exploring a particular issue or subject.
- noun obsolete A
test ,experiment ; anassay . - noun An
attempt . - verb dated, transitive To
try . - verb intransitive To
move forth, as into battle.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an analytic or interpretive literary composition
- noun a tentative attempt
- verb put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to
- verb make an effort or attempt
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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At its core were two pieces, the title essay and another, "The Eye Is a Part of the Mind," that offered the most sweeping argument against Greenbergian formalism.
The Man Who Taught Us to See Eric Gibson 2011
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In his title essay in the recent book, Race, Incarceration, and American Values, Professor Loury sounds the alarm on some of the same concerns the Children's Defense Fund has been raising when we talk about the pipeline to prison crisis.
Marian Wright Edelman: A Look at Race, Incarceration, and American Values 2009
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The title essay is written as a legal brief concerning the lawsuit of Wile E.
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The title essay is written as a legal brief concerning the lawsuit of Wile E.
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The title essay is written as a legal brief concerning the lawsuit of Wile E.
The Sunday Salon: What Makes Fiction, Fiction, and Nonfiction, Nonfiction? « Exile on Ninth Street 2009
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Emerson recognized this connection between nature and a certain elevation of mind, and he explains it in the title essay from "Nature":
John Wihbey: After Copenhagen Chaos, A Bit of Emerson for the Soul 2009
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As it happens, the title essay of the book is Mr. Rybczynski's attempt to fill out with fact the "fairy tales" he heard time and again about his parents 'fathers, one a prosperous banker and patriarch in interwar Warsaw, the other a philosopher and physicist in southeastern Poland who, in time, would withdraw from active life because of his troubled involvement with a married woman.
At Home in a New World Wladyslaw Pleszczynski 2009
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And I completely agree with the title essay - six-year-olds definitely shouldn't be dressed as sexily as they are these days.
Archive 2008-12-01 tinylittlelibrarian 2008
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And I completely agree with the title essay - six-year-olds definitely shouldn't be dressed as sexily as they are these days.
Review: Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank tinylittlelibrarian 2008
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And the title essay picks up this theme: "Let the dedicated activist never overshadow the dedicated servant of literature — the matchless storyteller."
reesetee commented on the word essay
In stamp collecting, this term refers to the artwork of a proposed design for a postage stamp. Some essays are rendered photographically; others are drawn or painted. One design is chosen out of many submissions to become the essay for the accepted design.
August 25, 2008
oroboros commented on the word essay
Sounds like the letters S A.
October 28, 2009