try
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: American-football
ball-games
board-games
chess
computing
engineering
football
games
hobbies
law
lifestyle
mathematics
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
programming
rugby
sciences
sports
transport
Etymology: From Middle English trien (“to separate out, sift, choose, select, evaluate, try a legal case”), from Anglo-Norman trier, triher, triere (“to divide, separate, choose, select, prove, determine, try a case”), Old French trier (“to choose, pick out or separate from others, sift, cull”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Occitan triar (“to choose, sort, scrutinise, peel”), Catalan triar (“to pick, choose, decide”). Suggested to be derived from Late Latin *trītāre (“to crush, grind, trample, wear out”), itself derived from Classical Latin trītus (“rubbed, worn down, pulverised”), the past participle of terō, terere (“to rub, wear down, trample”), though this derivation is incompatible with the Occitan form. Additionally, the shift in meaning from "rub, crush, trample" to "pick out, choose, cull" is difficult to explain. One suggestion is that the semantic shift might have originated from a Latin phrase *granum terere ("to tread the corn (in threshing)"; compare Latin trītūra (“rubbing, chafing, friction" also "threshing”)), which has a parallel in the modern French trier le grain (“to sort the grain”). Alternatively, perhaps derived from Vulgar Latin *trīāre, a metathetic alteration of *tīrāre (“to tear off, pull, draw”), whence also Old French tirer (“to draw, pull, pluck, tug, peck at, extract”), Occitan tirar (“to take, draw, retrieve, remove, extract”).
Replaced native Middle English cunnen (“to try”) (from Old English cunnian), Middle English fandien (“to try, prove”) (from Old English fandian), and Middle English costnien (“to try, tempt, test”) (from Old English costnian).
Inflected forms:
form: tries
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: trying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: tried
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: tried
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: try
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: try
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: tried
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: try
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: triest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: tried
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: triedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: tries
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: trieth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: tried
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: try
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: tried
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: try
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: tried
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: try
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: trying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: tried
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: trie
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: tries
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: trie
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.
pos: verb
examples: I tried to rollerblade, but I couldn’t.
Can you start the car? —I'll try (to).
Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.
Skywalker: Alright... I'll give it a try.
Yoda: NO! Try not! Do, or do not. There is no "try".
[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.
gloss: To divide; to separate.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: […]euery feend his buſie paines applyde, / To melt the golden metall, ready to be tryde.
gloss: To divide; to separate.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: to try out the wild corn from the good
the wylde corne, beinge in shap and greatnesse lyke to the good, if they be mengled, with great difficultie will be tried out
gloss: To divide; to separate.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
gloss: To divide; to separate.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
gloss: To test, to work out.
pos: verb
examples: I tried mixing more white paint to get a lighter shade.
gloss: To test, to work out.
pos: verb
examples: I shall try my skills on this.
The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.
“So mousie shall only find tins on the floor now,” thought Miss Mapp. “Mousie shall try his teeth on tins.”
Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.
gloss: To test, to work out.
pos: verb
tags: specifically
examples: You are trying my patience.
Don't try me.
gloss: To test, to work out.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
examples: Mona: Try this vampire bolt on for size!
Cedric: Why don't you try this alien bolt?
gloss: To test, to work out.
pos: verb
examples: Oh, you need to try the soup of the day!
Calvin: What's this disgusting slimy blob?
Dad: Try it. You'll love it.
gloss: To test, to work out.
pos: verb
examples: to try weights or measures by a standard;  to try a person's opinions
Let the end try the man.
gloss: To test, to work out.
pos: verb
examples: I'll try whether I can make it across town on foot.
Sir, the doctors and apothecaries are the greatest thieves in the world; they are always trying which can rob their patients the most.
gloss: To test, to work out.
pos: verb
examples: He was tried and executed.
The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.
I sit in front of the mirror and try myself. I am no impartial judge, otherwise I would have had myself executed several times over by now.
Sansa pretends to gather everyone in the great hall to try Arya, and at the last moment reveals she’s actually trying Littlefinger for murder and treason, although I think everyone in that room already knew what was going on except him.
gloss: To experiment, to strive.
pos: verb
examples: […]try the Lybian Heat, or Scythian Cold.
Never more
Mean I to trie what rash untri'd I sought,
The paine of absence from thy sight.
gloss: To experiment, to strive.
pos: verb
examples: Dad, for God's sake, I'm trying my best!
You are trying too hard.
gloss: To experiment, to strive.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: How do you try! (i.e., how do you do?)
gloss: To experiment, to strive.
pos: verb
examples: to try rival claims by a duel;  to try conclusions
[…]Left I the Court, to ſee this Quarrell try’de.
gloss: To experiment, to strive.
pos: verb
tags: euphemistic
gloss: To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.
pos: verb
gloss: To strain; to subject to excessive tests.
pos: verb
examples: The light tries his eyes.
Repeated failures try one's patience.
gloss: To want, to desire.
pos: verb
tags: slang
examples: I am really not trying to hear you talk about my mama like that.
gloss: An attempt.
pos: noun
examples: I gave unicycling a try but I couldn’t do it.
There was the day also when his favourite right uppercut had connected in most accurate and rhythmical fashion with the protruded chin of Bull Wardell of Whitechapel, whereby Silas put himself in the way of a Lonsdale Belt and a try for the championship.
When Papillon makes his last impossible try for freedom they embrace with the tendresse of lovers, however manly and platonic.
gloss: An act of tasting or sampling.
pos: noun
examples: I gave sushi a try but I didn’t like it.
gloss: A score in rugby league and rugby union, analogous to a touchdown in American football.
pos: noun
examples: Today I scored my first try.
But two penalties and a drop-goal from Jonny Wilkinson, despite a host of other wayward attempts, plus a late try from Chris Ashton were enough to send a misfiring England through.
gloss: A screen, or sieve, for grain.
pos: noun
tags: UK
dialectal
obsolete
examples: They will not passe thorough the holes of the sieve, ruddle or trie, if they be narrow.
gloss: A field goal or extra point
pos: noun
gloss: A move that almost solves a chess problem, except that Black has a unique defense.
pos: noun
gloss: A block of code that may trigger exceptions the programmer expects to catch, usually demarcated by the keyword try.
pos: noun
Synonyms: strive
put
keep
etc. one's nose to the grindstone
put one's back into
give 110%
break one's back
work hard
apply oneself
extra point
Related words: trial
tried and tested
tried and true
trier
Derived words: don't diet, try it
don't knock it till you've tried it
don't try this at home
don't try to teach grandma how to suck eggs
for lack of trying
I'd like to see someone try
I like to see you try
mistry
must-try
overtry
retry
right to try
triable
trisexual
try as one may
try as one might
try conclusions
try for size
tryhard
try-hard
trying
try it on
try it on the dog
try me
try-miter square
tryna
try-off
try-on
try on
try one's hand
try one's luck
try one's wings
try out
try-out
try-outs
try pot
trysexual
try someone's patience
try square
try-square
try the veal
try titles
trywork
captain's try
college try
give a try
good try
interception try
nice try
old college try
penalty try
Terms derived from the noun try
try cock
try-scorer
tryscorer
tryscoring
Translations: