TRIAL


Meaning of TRIAL in English

/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 .

Random House Webster's Unabridged English dictionary.      Полный английский словарь Вебстер - Random House .