[f. ASCERTAIN v. + -MENT; cf. OF. acertenement.] The process or result of ascertaining.
1. Reduction to certainty; exact determination, limitation, settlement. arch.
1657. (21 April) Cromwell, Sp. (1871), V. 37. That a period might be put, and some ascertainment made, and a time fixed.
1780. Burke, Sp. Econ. Ref., Wks. 1842, I. 255. For the ascertainment and security of tenant and other rights.
1848. Arnould, Law Mar. Insur. (1866), I. I. i. 13. Essential to the very notion of an indemnity is the accurate and nice ascertainment of the perils insured against.
2. Determination as the result of investigation; finding out, discovery.
1799. Sir J. Mackintosh, Bacon & Locke (1846), I. 329. Such facts bound our researches … and the ascertainment of them is the utmost possible attainment of Science.
1843. Mill, Logic, III. § 2. The ascertainment of these angular distances.
1863. Huxley, Man’s Place Nat., ii. 57. The question of questions for mankind … is the ascertainment of the place which Man occupies in nature.
