Definition of "try"

To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.  quotations  examples

(obsolete) To divide; to separate.

1. To separate (precious metal etc.) from the ore by melting; to purify, refine.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • […] euery feend his buſie paines applyde, / To melt the golden metall, ready to be tryde.

     1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, page 281

2. (one sort from another) To winnow; to sift; to pick out; frequently followed by out.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • the wylde corne, beinge in shap and greatnesse lyke to the good, if they be mengled, with great difficultie will be tried out

     1531, Thomas Elyot, edited by Ernest Rhys, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co, published

3. (nautical) To extract oil from blubber or fat; to melt down blubber to obtain oil  examples

4. To extract wax from a honeycomb  examples

To test, to work out.

1. To make an experiment. Usually followed by a present participle.  examples

2. To put to test.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., page 58

   • “So mousie shall only find tins on the floor now,” thought Miss Mapp. “Mousie shall try his teeth on tins.”

     1922, E. F. Benson, Miss Mapp, p. 89

   • 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.

     2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3

3. (specifically) To test someone's patience.  examples

4. (figuratively, chiefly used in the imperative) To receive an imminent attack; to take.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Mona: Try this vampire bolt on for size! / Cedric: Why don't you try this alien bolt?

     1999, Mona the Vampire, "The X-Change Student" (season 1, episode 6a)

5. To taste, sample, etc.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Calvin: What's this disgusting slimy blob?Dad: Try it. You'll love it.

     1986 January 22, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic)

6. To prove by experiment; to apply a test to, for the purpose of determining the quality; to examine; to prove; to test.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Let the end try the man.

     c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii], page 80, column 2

7. (with indirect interrogative clause) To attempt to determine (by experiment or effort).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Sir, the doctors and apothecaries are the greatest thieves in the world; they are always trying which can rob their patients the most.

     1785, James Ridgway, A Dictionary of Literary Conversation‎

8. (law) To put on trial.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […]

   • 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.

     1987, Hadi Khorsandi, “It Didn’t Quite Work Out—2”, in Ehssan Javan, transl., The Ayatollah and I

   • 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.

     2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club‎

To experiment, to strive.

1. To have or gain knowledge of by experience.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • […] try the Lybian Heat, or Scythian Cold.

     1697, Virgil, “The First Pastoral. Or, Tityrus and Melibœus.”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], page 4, line 88

   • Never more Mean I to trie what rash untri'd I sought, The paine of absence from thy sight.

     1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

2. To work on something with one's best effort and focus.  examples

3. (obsolete) To do; to fare.

4. To settle; to decide; to determine; specifically, to decide by an appeal to arms.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • […] Left I the Court, to ſee this Quarrell try’de.

     1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii], page 128, column 2

5. (euphemistic, of a couple) To attempt to conceive a child.  examples

(nautical) To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.  examples

To strain; to subject to excessive tests.  examples

(slang, chiefly African-American Vernacular, used with another verb) To want

An attempt.  quotations  examples

An act of tasting or sampling.  examples

(rugby) A score in rugby league and rugby union, analogous to a touchdown in American football.  quotations  examples

(UK, dialect, obsolete) A screen, or sieve, for grain.  quotations

(American football) A field goal or extra point  examples

(chess) A move that almost solves a chess problem, except that Black has a unique defense.  examples

(obsolete) Fine, excellent.  quotations