trial

noun

Law.

the examination before a judicial tribunal of the facts put in issue in a cause, often including issues of law as well as those of fact.

the determination of a person's guilt or innocence by due process of law.

the act of trying, testing, or putting to the proof.

test; proof.

an attempt or effort to do something.

a tentative or experimental action in order to ascertain results; experiment.

the state or position of a person or thing being tried or tested; probation.

subjection to suffering or grievous experiences; a distressed or painful state: comfort in the hour of trial.

an affliction or trouble.

a trying, distressing, or annoying thing or person.

10.

Ceramics. a piece of ceramic material used to try the heat of a kiln and the progress of the firing of its contents.

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adjective

11.

of, pertaining to, or employed in a trial.

12.

done or made by way of trial, proof, or experiment.

13.

used in testing, experimenting, etc.

14.

acting or serving as a sample, experimental specimen, etc.: a trial offer.

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to weaken or diminish something

skilled in determining the elements or essential features and critically examine an element or argument

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Idioms

15.

on trial,

undergoing examination before a judicial tribunal.

undergoing a probationary or trial period.

Origin:
1520–30; try + -al²

Related forms

in·ter·tri·al, adjective

non·tri·al, noun

post·tri·al, adjective

re·tri·al, noun

self-tri·al, noun

Can be confused: trail, trial (see synonym study at the current entry).

Synonyms
2, 3, 5. examination. T rial , experiment , test imply an attempt to find out something or to find out about something. T rial is the general word for a trying of anything: articles sent for ten days' free trial. E xperiment is a trial conducted to prove or illustrate the truth or validity of something, or an attempt to discover something new: an experiment in organic chemistry. T est is a more specific word, referring to a trial under approved and fixed conditions, or a final and decisive trial as a conclusion of past experiments: a test of a new type of airplane. 4. endeavor, essay, struggle. 7. grief, tribulation, distress, sorrow, trouble, hardship. See affliction.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

German Der Prozess. a novel (1925) by Franz Kafka.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To trial

Collins

World English Dictionary

trial¹ (ˈtraɪəl, traɪl)

—n
1.	a. the act or an instance of trying or proving; test or experiment
	b. (as modifier): a trial run
2.	law
	a. the judicial examination of the issues in a civil or criminal cause by a competent tribunal and the determination of these issues in accordance with the law of the land
	b. the determination of an accused person's guilt or innocence after hearing evidence for the prosecution and for the accused and the judicial examination of the issues involved
	c. (as modifier): trial proceedings
3.	an effort or attempt to do something: we had three trials at the climb
4.	trouble or grief
5.	an annoying or frustrating person or thing
6.	(often plural) a competition for individuals: sheepdog trials
7.	a motorcycling competition in which the skills of the riders are tested over rough ground
8.	ceramics a piece of sample material used for testing the heat of a kiln and its effects
9.	on trial
	a. undergoing trial, esp before a court of law
	b. being tested, as before a commitment to purchase

—vb , trials, trialling, trialled
10.	(tr) to test or make experimental use of (something): the idea has been trialled in several schools

[C16: from Anglo-French, from trier to try]

'trialling¹

—n

trial² (ˈtraɪəl)

—n
1.	a grammatical number occurring in some languages for words in contexts where exactly three of their referents are described or referred to
2.	(modifier) relating to or inflected for this number

[C19: from tri- + -al¹]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

trial

1436, "act or process of testing," from Anglo-Fr. trial, noun formed from triet "to try" (see try). Sense of "examining and deciding a case in a court of law" is first recorded 1577; extended to any ordeal by 1595.

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

trial

In addition to the idioms beginning with trial, also see on trial.