try

Less common meanings

5. 5
   test patienceverbtransitive

   To put a strain on someone or something, especially to test a person's patience to the limit.

   That child tries the patience of a saint.

   Kids, stop arguing in the back seat; you're starting to try my patience.

   UsageSet phrases: try someone's patience, and the warning don't try me. A trying day is a difficult one.

   Similartest, strain, tax, stretch

   Note

   Patience is the usual object, and often the only one named: you are trying my patience. Drop the noun and the person becomes the object, as in the warning don't try me, which signals a temper close to breaking. Circumstances can do it too, as when small print tries the eyes or a long delay tries everyone's nerves.

6. 6
   rugby scorenouncountable

   In rugby league and rugby union, a score made by grounding the ball over the opponents' line, analogous to a touchdown.

   A try is worth five points in union.

   Both tries came in the last ten minutes.

   UsageYou score a try. The kick that follows it is the conversion.

   Note

   In rugby, the try is the score itself, not an attempt at one, though the name comes from an early rule: grounding the ball once earned only a try at goal, a chance to kick for points. American readers should watch for the trap: the American football try is the attempt after the touchdown. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • In rugby, a try is a score. passport.world.rugby
   • The name derives from the opportunity to attempt a goal kick originally earned by grounding the ball. en.wikipedia.org
   • In American football, a try is an attempt to score additional points after a touchdown. static.www.nfl.com
7. 7
   verbeuphemisticintransitive

   Of a couple, to attempt to conceive a child.

   We've been trying since the wedding, but there's no baby yet.

   Couples who try for years often stop counting.

   UsageUsually in the progressive, as in we're trying or they've been trying. Adding for a baby is more direct.

   Note

   We're trying tells the listener everything without naming a baby, and that omission is the euphemism.

8. 8
   wantverbslang

   To want or desire, used with another verb.

   He's not trying to work weekends.

   Look, I'm not trying to hear excuses at seven in the morning.

   UsageClearest in the negative: I'm not trying to hear that means I don't want to hear it.

   Similarwant, intend

   Note

   Here the effort of trying turns into a wish, a slang shift heard chiefly in African-American Vernacular. Like the ordinary "attempt" meaning, it takes another verb, and the change shows most clearly in the negative: "I'm not trying to hear that" means "I don't want to hear that," not that an effort failed. Because both readings share one construction, context decides which is meant.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   In American football, the single play after a touchdown in which a team tries to add points, one by a kick or two by a run or pass.

   The coach skipped the kick and went for two on the try.

   After two touchdowns, the kicker shanked both tries, and those two points decided the game.

   UsageFans usually call it the extra point when kicked and the two-point conversion when run or passed.

   Similarconversion

   Note

   American football uses the noun for the attempt rather than the score. After a touchdown, the team gets one play to add a point with a kick or two with a run or pass, and the try is that play. That is the reverse of the rugby try, where the word names the score itself. The same noun means attempt on the gridiron and success on the rugby pitch. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • In American football, a try is an attempt to score additional points after a touchdown. static.www.nfl.com
   • The try consists of one down, with a successful kick worth one point and a touchdown worth two. static.www.nfl.com
   • In rugby, a try names a score. world.rugby
   • The distinction is between American football and rugby, regardless of location. USA Rugby also uses try for a score. cdn1.sportngin.com
10. 10
    programmingnouncountable

    In programming, a block of code that may raise exceptions the programmer expects to catch.

    An exception was raised inside the try, and the handler logged it.

    Nested tries make the error path hard to read.

    Note

    Programmers take the noun straight from the keyword that opens the block. Code that might raise an exception goes in the try, and the code that catches the exception follows it. The block is an attempt with failure planned for, which fits the verb's sense of attempting. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Potentially exception-raising code belongs in the try block, followed by exception-handling code. docs.python.org
11. 11
    verbarchaictransitive

    To have or gain knowledge of something by experience.

    Never more Mean I to trie what rash untri'd I sought, The paine of absence from thy sight.

    1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

    Similarexperience, undergo, know, taste

    Note

    Knowledge here comes from undergoing something, not testing it: one tries heat, cold or the pain of absence by living through it. Dryden's Virgil in 1697 speaks of trying "the Lybian Heat, or Scythian Cold." In Milton, a speaker resolves never again to try what was rashly sought untried. The objects are hardships, and the verb means enduring them. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Dryden's translation of Virgil was first published in 1697. openbook.lib.utah.edu
    • The quoted words occur in Dryden's translation of Virgil's First Pastoral, spoken by Meliboeus. en.wikisource.org
    • In Milton's Paradise Lost, Eve says she will never again experience the separation from Adam that she rashly sought. en.wikisource.org
12. 12
    verbobsolete

    To do or fare; to get on.

    Note

    Greetings once used it in place of do: How do you try? meant "How do you do?" The verb asks how someone is faring, not what they are attempting. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The historical greeting “How do you try?” meant “How do you do?” en.wiktionary.org
    • In this greeting, try means to fare, rather than to attempt or test something. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    verbobsolete

    To remove impurities from metal or a similar substance by melting it, or to extract it from ore in this way.

    Note

    Refiners once used this verb for what fire does to ore: it melts the dross away and leaves the metal pure. Spenser in 1590 still pictures fiends melting golden metal "ready to be tried". In passages like this the word should be read as "refined," not "tested." Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Try historically meant to refine metal by melting and separating impurities. en.wiktionary.org
    • The relevant part of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene was first published in 1590. en.wikipedia.org
    • Spenser depicts fiends melting golden metal “ready to be tried”; the quotation modernizes the original spelling. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    verbobsolete

    To winnow or sift, picking one sort out from another, often with 'out'.

    the wylde corne, beinge in shap and greatnesse lyke to the good, if they be mengled, with great difficultie will be tried out

    1531, Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour

    to try out the wild corn from the good

    Note

    Here one sort is separated from another, as Old French trier, "to sift, cull," suggests. It usually takes out: wild corn is tried out from the good. Elyot in 1531 notes how hard that is when the two look alike. In older prose, try out means sorting, not testing, and the grain sieve called a try is its tool. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • Old French trier meant to sift or cull and is an ancestor of English try. en.wiktionary.org
    • The separation sense frequently takes out, including when separating wild corn from good corn. en.wiktionary.org
    • Elyot describes the difficulty of separating wild corn that resembles good corn. extra.shu.ac.uk
    • The work containing Elyot's comparison was first published in 1531. celm.folger.edu
    • Try out has a historical sorting sense, illustrated by the preceding grain example. en.wiktionary.org
    • A try is a grain sieve, a tool for this separation. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    melt fatverbdated

    To extract oil from blubber or fat, or wax from honeycomb, by heating or melting it.

    Note

    Whalers tried blubber by melting it down until the oil separated from it. The idea is the same separation as in the refiner's sense, with fat in place of ore. In this use, try out means "render," not "test," which matters when it turns up in old sea writing. The trade term now lives on mainly in histories of whaling. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Whalers heated blubber to extract its oil. home.nps.gov
    • The rendering and refining senses both involve separation by heating. en.wiktionary.org
    • In whaling, try out means render blubber into oil. anchoragemuseum.org
    • The term survives in maritime descriptions of rendering blubber into oil, including NOAA's own usage. sanctuaries.noaa.gov
16. 16
    sievenounobsoleteUK

    A sieve or screen through which grain is sifted.

    They will not passe thorough the holes of the sieve, ruddle or trie, if they be narrow.

    1603, Plutarch, The Philosophie

    Note

    Sifting had its own tool by this name, an obsolete British dialect word for a grain sieve. Philemon Holland's 1603 Plutarch lists it with its near-synonyms, "the sieve, ruddle or trie," and spells it trie. Its link to the sifting verb is direct: the noun names the instrument of the action. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Try was an obsolete British dialect word for a grain sieve. en.wiktionary.org
    • Philemon Holland's translation of Plutarch's Morals was first published in 1603. archive.org
    • Holland writes “the sieve, ruddle or trie,” using trie as a synonym for sieve. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    adjectiveobsolete

    Fine, excellent, or choice.

    Note

    Spenser places the adjective after its noun, in "feete of siluer trye," a word order older verse used freely with words of quality. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Spenser uses “feete of siluer trye,” with trye following the noun it modifies. gutenberg.org
    • Postpositive adjectives were freely used in older verse. en.wikipedia.org
18. 18
    verb

    Chiefly in the imperative, to receive or take an imminent attack.
19. 19
    noun

    In chess problems, a move that almost solves the problem, except that Black has a unique defense.
20. 20
    verb

    To settle, decide, or determine something, specifically by an appeal to arms.
21. 21
    verb

    Of a ship, to lie to in heavy weather with little or no sail set, keeping the bow toward the wind.