try

Plural: tries

Noun

earnest and conscientious activity intended to do or accomplish something
- "she gave it a good try"
An attempt.
An act of tasting or sampling.
A score in rugby league and rugby union, analogous to a touchdown in American football.
A screen, or sieve, for grain.
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

Verb Forms: tried, trying, tries

To make an attempt or effort to do something.
make an effort or attempt
put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to
put on trial or hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of
take a sample of
- "Try these new crackers"
examine or hear (evidence or a case) by judicial process
give pain or trouble to
test the limits of
- "You are trying my patience!"
melt (fat or lard) in order to separate out impurities
- "try the yak butter"
put on a garment in order to see whether it fits and looks nice
- "Try on this sweater to see how it looks"
To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.
To divide; to separate.
To separate (precious metal etc.) from the ore by melting; to purify, refine.
To divide; to separate.
To winnow; to sift; to pick out; frequently followed by out.
To divide; to separate.
To extract oil from blubber or fat; to melt down blubber to obtain oil
To divide; to separate.
To extract wax from a honeycomb
To test, to work out.
To make an experiment. Usually followed by a present participle.
To test, to work out.
To put to test.
To test, to work out.
To test someone's patience.
To test, to work out.
To receive an imminent attack; to take.
To test, to work out.
To taste, sample, etc.
To test, to work out.
To prove by experiment; to apply a test to, for the purpose of determining the quality; to examine; to prove; to test.
To test, to work out.
To attempt to determine (by experiment or effort).
To test, to work out.
To put on trial.
To experiment, to strive.
To have or gain knowledge of by experience.
To experiment, to strive.
To work on something with one's best effort and focus.
To experiment, to strive.
To do; to fare.
To experiment, to strive.
To settle; to decide; to determine; specifically, to decide by an appeal to arms.
To experiment, to strive.
To attempt to conceive a child.
To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.
To strain; to subject to excessive tests.
To want, to desire.

Adj

Fine, excellent.

Examples

Can you start the car? —I'll try (to).
Dad, for God's sake, I'm trying my best!
Don't try me.
He decided to ’try’ for a bingo, even if it meant using all his vowels.
He was tried and executed.
How do you try! (i.e., how do you do?)
I am really not trying to hear you talk about my mama like that.
I gave sushi a try but I didn’t like it.
I gave unicycling a try but I couldn’t do it.
I shall try my skills on this.
I tried mixing more white paint to get a lighter shade.
I tried to rollerblade, but I couldn’t.
I'll try whether I can make it across town on foot.
Oh, you need to try the soup of the day!
Repeated failures try one's patience.
The light tries his eyes.
to try out the wild corn from the good
to try rival claims by a duel; to try conclusions
to try weights or measures by a standard; to try a person's opinions
Today I scored my first try.
You are trying my patience.
You are trying too hard.

Origin / 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).

Synonyms

adjudicate, assay, attempt, effort, endeavor, endeavour, essay, examine, hear, judge, prove, render, sample, seek, strain, stress, taste, test, try on, try out, apply oneself, bash, break one's back, etc. one's nose to the grindstone, extra point, fand, give 110%, go, keep, mint, put, put one's back into, sampling, stab, strive, take a run at, take a stab at, tasting, touchdown, whirl, work hard

Scrabble Score: 6

try: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
try: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
try: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 5

try: valid Words With Friends Word