tried

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of try.

   He tried to open the jammed window for several minutes.

   Every approach the team had tried so far failed to fix the problem.

   Note

   Try changes its y to i before the ending, so one spelling serves both she tried and she has tried. What follows the verb matters. With an infinitive it means an attempt, as in Archibald Marshall's 1909 "He tried to persuade Cicely." With an -ing form it means an experiment: tried opening the window tests a fix, while tried to open it describes a struggle.

2. 2
   adjective

   Proven through testing to be firm or reliable.

   Like a veteran player a coach trusts in big moments because they have delivered before.

   Decades of steady service made her a tried and trusted advisor.

   The engineers relied on tried methods rather than risky experiments.

   Similarproven, reliable, trusted, dependable, established

   Oppositeuntried, untested, unproven

   Note

   A participial adjective built straight from the verb, try plus -ed. It compares with more and most rather than an ending: a more tried remedy, the most tried of methods. It is happiest in pairs like tried and true, tried and tested and tried and trusted, where the second word spells out what the testing proved.

3. 3
   adjective

   Brought before a court of law and put on trial.

   Defendants tried before a jury may appeal an unfavorable verdict.

   The suspects tried last spring all received lengthy sentences.

   Note

   The courtroom use almost always follows its noun, because it needs company: a court, a jury, a date or a charge, as in defendants tried before a jury or cases tried last spring. That position keeps it apart from the "proven reliable" meaning, which sits before the noun. A tried witness is a dependable one; a witness tried for perjury has stood in the dock.

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