try

noun

way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football

L15753 on Wikidata ↗

verb

to attempt at, to put to test
lawsuit
various idtioms: try one's hand at, try one's patience, etc.

L756 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /tɹaɪ/ / [t͡ʃɹaɪ̯] / [tɹ̝̊aɪ̯]

adj

Etymology: From Middle English trye, trie, probably from Old French trié, past participle of Old French trier (“to try”).

Fine, excellent.
“But he her ſuppliant hands, thoſe hands of gold, / And eke her feete, thoſe feete of ſiluer trye, […] Chopt off […].”

noun

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).

An attempt.
“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.”
An act of tasting or sampling.
“I gave sushi a try but I didn’t like it.”
A score in rugby league and rugby union, analogous to a touchdown in American football.
“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.”
A screen, or sieve, for grain.
“They will not passe thorough the holes of the sieve, ruddle or trie, if they be narrow.”
A field goal or extra point
A move that almost solves a chess problem, except that Black has a unique defense.
A block of code that may trigger exceptions the programmer expects to catch, usually demarcated by the keyword try.

verb

To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.
“I tried to rollerblade, but I couldn’t.”
“Can you start the car? —I'll try (to).”
To divide; to separate.
“[…]euery feend his buſie paines applyde, / To melt the golden metall, ready to be tryde.”
To divide; to separate.
“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”
To divide; to separate.
To divide; to separate.
To test, to work out.
“I tried mixing more white paint to get a lighter shade.”
To test, to work out.
“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.”
To test, to work out.
“You are trying my patience.”
“Don't try me.”
To test, to work out.
“Mona: Try this vampire bolt on for size! Cedric: Why don't you try this alien bolt?”
To test, to work out.
“Oh, you need to try the soup of the day!”
“Calvin: What's this disgusting slimy blob? Dad: Try it. You'll love it.”
To test, to work out.
“to try weights or measures by a standard; to try a person's opinions”
“Let the end try the man.”
To test, to work out.
“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.”
To test, to work out.
“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.”
To experiment, to strive.
“[…]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.”
To experiment, to strive.
“Dad, for God's sake, I'm trying my best!”
“You are trying too hard.”
To experiment, to strive.
“How do you try! (i.e., how do you do?)”
To experiment, to strive.
“to try rival claims by a duel; to try conclusions”
“[…]Left I the Court, to ſee this Quarrell try’de.”
To experiment, to strive.
To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.
To strain; to subject to excessive tests.
“The light tries his eyes.”
“Repeated failures try one's patience.”
To want, to desire.
“I am really not trying to hear you talk about my mama like that.”