try

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To make an effort to do or accomplish (something); attempt: tried to ski.
2. v. To taste, sample, or otherwise test in order to determine strength, effect, worth, or desirability: Try this casserole. Try the door.
3. v. Law To examine or hear (evidence or a case) by judicial process.
4. v. Law To put (an accused person) on trial.
5. v. To subject to great strain or hardship; tax: The last steep ascent tried my every muscle.
6. v. To melt (lard, for example) to separate out impurities; render.
7. v. To smooth, fit, or align accurately.
8. v. To make an effort; strive.
9. n. An attempt; an effort.
10. n. Sports In Rugby, an act of advancing the ball past the opponent's goal line and grounding it there for a score of three points.
11. try on To don (a garment) to test its fit.
12. try on To test or use experimentally.
13. try out To undergo a competitive qualifying test, as for a job or athletic team.
14. try out To test or use experimentally.
15. idiom. try (one's) hand To attempt to do something for the first time: I tried my hand at skiing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To separate, as what is good from what is bad; separate by sifting; sift.
2. Hence— To select; cull; pick out.
3. To ascertain by sifting or examination.
4. To separate (metal) from the ore or dross by melting; refine; assay.
5. To separate or reduce by boiling or steaming; render: generally with out: as, to try out lard or blubber.
6. To put to the test or proof; subject to experimental treatment, comparison with a standard, or the like, in order to determine the truth, accuracy, power, strength, speed, fitness, or other quality of; test; prove: as, to try weights and measures; to try a new invention; to try conclusions; to try one's patience, or one's luck.
7. To use, apply, or practise tentatively; experiment with: as, to try a new remedy; also, to experiment upon; treat tentatively.
8. To endeavor experimentally to find out.
9. To experience; have knowledge of by experience.
10. To undertake; attempt; essay.
11. To examine judicially; bring or set before a court with evidence or argument, or both, for a final judicial determination; submit to the examination and decision or sentence of a judicial tribunal: as, to try a case; to try a prisoner. The word is used in law with reference to the issues raised by the pleadings, not with reference to motions and other interlocutory questions.
12. To bring to a decision; determine; settle; hence, to decide by combat.
13. To bear hardly upon; subject to trials or suffering; afflict: as, the family has been sorely tried.
14. To strain: as, to try the eyes.
15. To incite to wrong; tempt; solicit.
16. To invite; escort.
17. In joinery, to dress with a trying-plane. See trying-plane.
18. To attempt; undertake.
19. To exert strength; make an effort; endeavor; attempt: as, to try for a situation.
20. To find or show what a person or a thing is; prove by experience; make or hold a trial.
21. Nautical, to lie to in a gale under storm-sails so as to keep a ship's bow to the sea.
22. In angling, to fish again over a pool or stream where the fish have refused to bite before, as with a different cast of flies, from another direction with regard to the wind or sun, etc.: also used transitively: as, to try back the water.
23. Hence— To transude, or ooze out, as sweat: as, the perspiration is trying out of him.
24. Synonyms To seek, essay, strive.
25. n. The act of trying; a trial; experiment; effort.
26. n. In foot-ball, in the Rugby game, the right to carry the ball in front of the goal and try to kick a goal. When goals are equal, the game is decided by the majority of tries.
27. n. A sieve; riddle; screen.

Wiktionary

1. v. To attempt. Followed by infinitive.
2. v. obsolete To separate (precious metal etc.) from the ore by melting; to purify, refine.
3. v. To make an experiment. Usually followed by a present participle.
4. v. To work on something.
5. v. To put to test.
6. v. To taste, sample, etc.
7. v. To put on trial.
8. v. nautical To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.
9. n. An attempt.
10. n. An act of tasting or sampling.
11. n. rugby A score in rugby, analogous to a touchdown in American football.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. obsolete To divide or separate, as one sort from another; to winnow; to sift; to pick out; -- frequently followed by out.
2. v. To purify or refine, as metals; to melt out, and procure in a pure state, as oil, tallow, lard, etc.
3. v. To prove by experiment; to apply a test to, for the purpose of determining the quality; to examine; to prove; to test.
4. v. To subject to severe trial; to put to the test; to cause suffering or trouble to.
5. v. To experiment with; to test by use.
6. v. To strain; to subject to excessive tests; ; repeated disappointments try one's patience.
7. v. (Law) To examine or investigate judicially; to examine by witnesses or other judicial evidence and the principles of law.
8. v. To settle; to decide; to determine; specifically, to decide by an appeal to arms.
9. v. To experience; to have or gain knowledge of by experience.
10. v. To essay; to attempt; to endeavor.
11. v. To exert strength; to endeavor; to make an effort or an attempt.
12. v. Prov. Eng. To do; to fare; .
13. n. Obs. or Prov. Eng. A screen, or sieve, for grain.
14. n. Act of trying; attempt; experiment; trial.
15. n. In Rugby and Northern Union football, a score (counting three points) made by grounding the ball on or behind the opponent's goal line; -- so called because it entitles the side making it to a place kick for a goal (counting two points more if successful).
16. adj. obsolete Refined; select; excellent; choice.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. give pain or trouble to
2. v. put on a garment in order to see whether it fits and looks nice
3. v. make an effort or attempt
4. v. test the limits of
5. v. put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to
6. n. earnest and conscientious activity intended to do or accomplish something
7. v. put on trial or hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of
8. v. melt (fat or lard) in order to separate out impurities
9. v. examine or hear (evidence or a case) by judicial process
10. v. take a sample of