litmus test

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English

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Etymology

From litmus +‎ test.

Noun

litmus test (plural litmus tests)

  2. (chemistry) A simple, binary test for the acidity or alkalinity of a substance, using litmus paper.
  4. (figuratively, by extension) Any test which produces a binary, decisive result (for example, determining whether to appoint someone to a job) by measuring a single indicator.
    Coordinate term: acid test
    Exams, not interviews, have become the litmus test for entry to university.
    • 1940 October 2, Allison Danzig, “Leading Elevens Face Stern Threats in Saturday's Games”, in New York Times, page 27:
      Temple, under its new coach, Ray Morrison, formerly of Vanderbilt, will be put to the blue litmus test Friday night when it takes on Georgetown.
    • 1998 February 16, “Baby-Boomer Bonding”, in Newsweek:
      For good reasons or bad, early membership of the currency union has become the litmus test of being a "good European."
    • 2004 November 15, Matthew Cooper, “Candidates In the Wings”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 2013-02-20:
      He opposes a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage—a litmus test for many social conservatives
    • 2018 March 1, Steven Kurutz, quoting Lisa Schwarzbaum, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like ‘Manhattan’?”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      For years, quoting lines from “Manhattan” or another film by Mr. Allen on a date could be a romantic litmus test, a way to find out if a potential partner also loved E. E. Cummings, Paris, 1930s jazz and the sophisticated, cultured world the films often came to represent.
    • 2024 January 24, Dyan Perry talks to Nick Brodrick, “The industry has given me so much”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 44:
      " […] I don't know National Rail numbers, but I do know that after the pandemic I used to go round a lot of the London stations, and they had far more locations shut than I did at St Pancras. That was very much my litmus test."

Translations

References

  • “litmus test”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
  • Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987–1996.
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