The Collaborative International Dictionary
Assess \As*sess"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Assessed; p. pr. & vb. n. Assessing.] [OF. assesser to regulate, settle, LL. assessare to value for taxation, fr. L. assidere, supine as if assessum, to sit by, esp. of judges in a court, in LL. to assess, tax. Cf. Assize, v., Cess.]
To value; to make a valuation or official estimate of for the purpose of taxation.
To apportion a sum to be paid by (a person, a community, or an estate), in the nature of a tax, fine, etc.; to impose a tax upon (a person, an estate, or an income) according to a rate or apportionment.
To determine and impose a tax or fine upon (a person, community, estate, or income); to tax; as, the club assessed each member twenty-five cents.
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To fix or determine the rate or amount of.
This sum is assessed and raised upon individuals by commissioners in the act.
--Blackstone.
Wiktionary
n. action of the verb ''to assess''; assessment. vb. (present participle of assess English)
Usage examples of "assessing".
In such a case the debt follows the territory, and the duty of assessing and collecting taxes to satisfy it devolves upon the succeeding corporations and their officers.
On the other hand, judicial proceedings in one State, under which inheritance taxes have been paid and the administration upon the estate has been closed, are denied full faith and credit by the action of a probate court in another State in assuming jurisdiction and assessing inheritance taxes against the beneficiaries of the estate, when under the law of the former State the order of the probate court barring all creditors who had failed to bring in their demand from any further claim against the executors was binding upon all.
Moreover, in assessing that part of a railroad within its limits, a State need not treat it as an independent line, disconnected from the part without, and place upon the property within the State only a value which could be given to it if operated separately from the balance of the road.
A corporation whose valuations were accepted by the assessing commission cannot complain that it was taxed disproportionately, as compared with others, if the commission did not act fraudulently.
Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet said the agency was still assessing who was responsible, but the early signs all pointed to al Qaeda.
In assessing the relative threat posed by biological and chemical weapons, it appears there is a trade-off.
Paul Pillar, who coordinated intelligence analysis for the Near East and South Asia, was at this moment completing a report that Cheney had commissioned in the spring, assessing postinvasion Iraq.
Beside him, another Indian, also on horseback, drifted into view, his dark eyes assessing her silently.
This accomplished, he swung the circular cover back on the stove, unbolted and opened his door, and stood in the doorway a moment assessing the day.