1. 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.
What marvel if I thus essay to sing?Byron.
Essaying nothing she can not perform.Emerson.
A danger lest the young enthusiast . . . should essay the impossible.J. C. Shairp.
2. To test the value and purity of (metals); to assay. See Assay. [Obs.] Locke.
(Es*say"er) n. One who essays. Addison.
(Es"say*ist) n. A writer of an essay, or of essays. B. Jonson.
(Es"sence) n. [F. essence, L. essentia, formed as if fr. a p. pr. of esse to be. See Is, and
1. The constituent elementary notions which constitute a complex notion, and must be enumerated to
define it; sometimes called the nominal essence.
2. The constituent quality or qualities which belong to any object, or class of objects, or on which they
depend for being what they are (distinguished as real essence); the real being, divested of all logical
accidents; that quality which constitutes or marks the true nature of anything; distinctive character; hence,
virtue or quality of a thing, separated from its grosser parts.
The laws are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labors under.Landor.
Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence of this virtue [charity].Addison.
The essence of Addison's humor is irony.Courthope.
3. Constituent substance.
And uncompounded is their essence pure.Milton.
4. A being; esp., a purely spiritual being.
As far as gods and heavenly essencesMilton.
He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until . . . he had and ideal world
of his own around him.W. Irving.
5. The predominant qualities or virtues of a plant or drug, extracted and refined from grosser matter; or,
more strictly, the solution in spirits of wine of a volatile or essential oil; as, the essence of mint, and the
The . . . word essence . . . scarcely underwent a more complete transformation when from being the
abstract of the verb "to be," it came to denote something sufficiently concrete to be inclosed in a glass
bottle.J. S. Mill.
6. Perfume; odor; scent; or the volatile matter constituting perfume.
Nor let the essences exhale.Pope.
(Es"sence), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Essenced ; p. pr. & vb. n. Essencing ] To perfume; to scent.
"Essenced fops." Addison.