the verb-stem in combination.
1. with sbs., forming sbs. denoting appliances, etc., for trying (in various senses of the verb): try-cock, ‘a gauge-cock’ (Webster, 1864); try-gun, a model gun with an adjustable stock (see quot.); try-house, a building for ‘trying’ or extracting oil from blubber, etc.; try-pit, a testing pit for trying new engines; try-plane, a trying-plane (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); try-pot, a pot for ‘trying’ oil from blubber; try rule (see quot.); try-square, a carpenter’s square for laying off short perpendiculars; try-stick, a stick used in fitting leather work; try-works, the apparatus used for ‘trying’ oil from blubber. See also TRYSAIL.
1892. Greener, Breech-Loader, 95. The *‘try gun’ … permits of the stock being altered to any length, bend, cast-off, and shape of the butt, and is of use in fitting a sportsman who needs a gun of special build.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Try-house.
1895. G. W. Edwards, in Century Mag., Aug., 575/1. The men and their wives and children begin to come up the crooked road by the clump of willows, past the try-house.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, M‘Andrews’ Hymn, 44.
| Mill, forge an’ *try-pit taught them [ship’s engines] that when roarin’ they arose, | |
| An’ whiles I wonder if a soul was gied them wi’ the blows. |
1836. Uncle Philip’s Convers. Whale Fishery, 267. They [mincers] are the men who stand with their sharp knives and cut the blubber, before it is thrown into the *try-pots.
1875. Temple & Sheldon, Hist. Northfield, Mass., 159. In those days, no frames were set out by the square rule, but by what they called the *try rule,… i.e. the sills, posts and beams were framed and tried, and the braces were laid on to mark their bevels and length.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Try-square … consists of a thin blade of steel … let into a wooden piece … and securely fastened at right angles.
1901. J. Black’s Illustr. Carp. & Build., Home Handicr., 19. The transverse lines … drawn with the pencil … can afterwards be corrected with the try square.
1888. Farr & Thrupp, Coach Trimming, iii. 39. He should neatly join on the back and side pieces, making use of *try-sticks … to secure their right appliance.
c. 1825. Choyce, Log of Jack Tar (1891), 198. A native trying to steal a brass cock from the *try-works.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 11. Her deck was flush fore and aft, the only obstructions being the brick-built ‘try-works’ in the waist.
2. with advbs., forming sbs. derived from adverbial combinations of the verb: try-on (TRY v. 15 b, 9), (a) (slang) an attempt, esp. an attempt at imposition or deceit; also transf. the subject of an attempt; (b) the act of trying on a garment; tryout (U.S. slang or colloq.), a selective trial.
1874. Siliad, 57. The flagitious claims—Call them, or damages, *‘tries-on,’ or shames.
1885. Law Times Rep., LIII. 479/2. This was a try-on, on the part of the solicitors which ought not to be allowed.
1905. Daily News, 28 Oct., 6. Garments must be cut to fit without successive try-ons.
1900. Buffalo Review, 8 Jan., 2/3. Griffo is himself again. The little Antipodean [Australian] received his first *tryout since his release from an insane asylum, in a six-round bout at Chicago.
1906. Tyer, VI. 171. One girl represented the Athena Club in the debaters’ tryout, and won a place as an inter-collegiate debater.
