try

• (General American) enPR: trī, IPA^(key): /tɹaɪ/, [tɹaɪ], [t͡ʃɹaɪ]
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: trī, IPA^(key): /tɹaɪ/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -aɪ

From Middle English trien (“to try a legal case”), from Anglo-Norman trier (“to try a case”), Old French trier (“to choose, pick out or separate from others, sift, cull”), of uncertain origin. Believed to be a metathetic variation of Old French tirer (“to pull out, snatch”), from Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌽 (tiran, “to tear away, remove”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”), see tear. Related to Occitan triar (“to pick out, choose from among others”).

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).

try (third-person singular simple present tries, present participle trying, simple past and past participle tried)

1. To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.

   I tried to rollerblade, but I couldn’t.

   I'll come to dinner soon. I'm trying to beat this level first.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

   • 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:

     [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.

2. (obsolete) To divide; to separate.
   1. To separate (precious metal etc.) from the ore by melting; to purify, refine.
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:

        euery feend his busie paines applide, / To melt the golden metall, ready to be tride.

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

      to try out the wild corn from the good

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir T. Elyot to this entry?)

   3. (nautical) To extract oil from blubber or fat; to melt down blubber to obtain oil
   4. To extract wax from a honeycomb
3. To test, to work out.
   1. To make an experiment. Usually followed by a present participle.

      I tried mixing more white paint to get a lighter shade.

   2. To put to test.

      I shall try my skills on this.

      • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

        The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an 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.

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

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

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

        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.

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

      You are trying my patience.

      Don't fucking try me.

   4. To taste, sample, etc.

      Try this—you’ll love it.

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

      to try weights or measures by a standard;  to try a person's opinions

      • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

        Let the end try the man.

   6. (law) To put on trial.

      He was tried and executed.

      • 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:

        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.

      • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I

        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.

4. To experiment, to strive.
   1. To have or gain knowledge of by experience.
      • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

        Try the Libyan heat or Scythian cold.

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

   2. To work on something.

      You are trying too hard.

   3. (obsolete) To do; to fare.

      How do you try! (i.e., how do you do?)

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

      to try rival claims by a duel;  to try conclusions

      • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

        Left I the court, to see this quarrel tried.

   5. (euphemistic, of a couple) To attempt to conceive a child.
5. (nautical) To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.
6. To strain; to subject to excessive tests.

   The light tries his eyes.

   Repeated failures try one's patience.

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

   I am really not trying to hear you talk about my mama like that.

• (to attempt): This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. In the future tense, it can take and instead of to.

  I'm going to try to distract him. (more formal)

  I'm going to try and distract him. (less formal)

• (to make an experiment): This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing).
• See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• (to attempt): attempt, endeavor, fand, mint, take a run at, take a stab at
• (to taste, sample, etc): sample, taste

try (plural tries)

1. An attempt.

   I gave unicycling a try but I couldn’t do it.

2. An act of tasting or sampling.

   I gave sushi a try but I didn’t like it.

3. (rugby) A score in rugby, analogous to a touchdown in American football.

   Today I scored my first try.

   • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎:

     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.

4. (Britain, dialectal, obsolete) A screen, or sieve, for grain.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

5. (American football) a field goal or extra point

• (an attempt): bash, go, stab, whirl
• (an act of tasting or sampling): sampling, taste, tasting
• (a score in rugby): touchdown (American football)
• (the point after touchdown): extra point (American football)

Probably from Old French trié.

try (comparative more try, superlative most try)

1. (obsolete) Fine, excellent.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.2:

     But he her suppliant hands, those hands of gold, / And eke her feete, those feete of silver trye, […] Chopt off […].

• Tyr

• (Standard Written Form) trei
• (Standard Written Form) tri

From Proto-Brythonic *tri, from Proto-Celtic *trīs, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes.

try

1. (Standard Cornish) three

• teyr

• (cardinal number): Previous: dew. Next: peswar

try m (plural tries)

1. try (a score in rugby)
2. (programming) try (block of code that may trigger exceptions)

• (rugby score): ensaio

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /trɨː/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /triː/

try

1. third-person singular present indicative and future of troi

try n

1. neuter nominative and accusative of tri (“three”)