Other forms: tried, trying, tries
To try is to make an effort at something you might not manage. You try to open a stuck jar, try to remember where you put the tickets, try again after the first attempt goes wrong.
Try also means taste or test: try the soup, try on a jacket, try a different route home. Two patterns split the meaning — try TO call means make the effort, try calling means do it and see whether it helps. The noun is an attempt: give it a try, worth a try, second try lucky. A court tries a case, and someone is on trial. Rugby has its own noun, a try, worth five points. And trying as an adjective means wearing on the nerves — a trying afternoon with three small children.
1verbtryTo make an effort to do something, knowing it may not work.~64%
“I'll try to be there by six.”
2verbtasteTo taste or test something to find out what it is like.~16%
“Try the green one — it's sweeter.”
3verbexamineTo examine a case, or the person accused, in a court of law.~16%
“The court will try the case in March.”
4nounattemptAn attempt at something.~2%
“It didn't work the first time, but the second try did.”
5nounrugbyIn rugby, a score made by grounding the ball behind the opposing line.~2%
“Their winger scored a try in the last minute.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense (3 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: attempt
Middle English trien meant to sift, to sort, to pick the good out from the bad — and also to try a legal case. It came from Old French trier, 'to choose, pick out or separate from others, sift, cull', and where French found it is not known. Sorting is the thread: you sift the grain, you sift the evidence, and either way you find out what something is worth.
Old French
trier — to choose, pick out or separate from others, sift, cull
Anglo-Norman
trier
Middle English
trien — to separate out, sift, choose, select, evaluate, try a legal case
English, today
try
Built from
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 unknown origin. Cognate with Occitan triar (“to choose, sort, scrutinise, peel”), Catalan triar (“to pick, choose, decide”). Suggested to be derived from Latin trītō (“to crush, grind, trample, wear out”), itself derived from la-cla trītus (“rubbed, worn down, pulverised”), the past participle of tero (“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 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).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA