Link Centre Dictionary

trial

UK/ˈtɹaɪəl/ US/tɹaɪəl/ common uk

noun

1.

(law) legal proceedings consisting of the judicial examination of issues by a competent tribunal

  • “most of these complaints are settled before they go to trial”
2.

the act of testing something

  • “in the experimental trials the amount of carbon was measured separately”
  • “he called each flip of the coin a new trial”
Synonyms
3.

(sports) a preliminary competition to determine qualifications

  • “the trials for the semifinals began yesterday”
4.

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

  • “he had a fair trial and the jury found him guilty”
5.

trying something to find out about it

  • “a sample for ten days free trial”
  • “a trial of progesterone failed to relieve the pain”
Synonyms
6.

an annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event

  • “his mother-in-law”
  • “;”
  • “;”
Synonyms
7.

the act of undergoing testing

  • “he survived the great test of battle”
  • “candidates must compete in a trial of skill”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English trial, triall, from Anglo-Norman trial, triel, from trier (“to pick out, cull”) + -al. More at English try.

Phrases

  • bench trial
  • civil trial
  • clinical trial
  • fair trial
  • field trial
  • free trial
  • jury trial
  • monkey trial

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.