/truy"euhl, truyl/ , n.
1. Law.
a. 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.
b. the determination of a person's guilt or innocence by due process of law.
2. the act of trying, testing, or putting to the proof.
3. test; proof.
4. an attempt or effort to do something.
5. a tentative or experimental action in order to ascertain results; experiment.
6. the state or position of a person or thing being tried or tested; probation.
7. subjection to suffering or grievous experiences; a distressed or painful state: comfort in the hour of trial.
8. an affliction or trouble.
9. a trying, distressing, or annoying thing or person.
10. Ceram. a piece of ceramic material used to try the heat of a kiln and the progress of the firing of its contents.
11. on trial ,
a. undergoing examination before a judicial tribunal.
b. undergoing a probationary or trial period.
adj.
12. of, pertaining to, or employed in a trial.
13. done or made by way of trial, proof, or experiment.
14. used in testing, experimenting, etc.
15. acting or serving as a sample, experimental specimen, etc.: a trial offer.
[ 1520-30; TRY + -AL 2 ]
Syn. 2, 3, 5. examination. TRIAL, EXPERIMENT, TEST imply an attempt to find out something or to find out about something. TRIAL is the general word for a trying of anything: articles sent for ten days' free trial. EXPERIMENT 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. TEST 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 .