[f. TRY v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb TRY, in various senses.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 502/2. Tryynge, eleccio, preeleccio, examinacio.
1447. Ordinaunce of Exchequer, 35 c. 62 (6) A iij. To the mayster for laboure of redynge endosynge and tryenge of peticyons and fynes.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xvi. 22. The tryenge out of men is in the fulfillynge.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 216. They know not the use of trying of Mettals.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. ii. 17. It is better spooning before the Sea, than trying or hulling.
1819. Sporting Mag., V. 123. All the frolic, fun,… gammon, and trying-it-on are depicted.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 95. The whole work of cutting in and trying out was got through without a single accident.
b. attrib., as trying-plane, a long heavy plane used after the jack-plane for the accurate squaring of timber; trying-pot, a pot for ‘trying’ out oil; trying-square = try-square (see TRY- 1).
1579. [see SQUARE sb. 2].
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 109. The trying-plane is made use of to produce a higher degree of regularity and smoothness.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 244. The Trying-Plane … is used to regulate and smooth, to a higher degree, the surface of a piece of stuff that has already been reduced to its intended form by means of the jack-plane.
1882. F. M. Crawford, Mr. Isaacs, iii. The only way to arrive at any conclusion is by a sort of trying-on process.
1885. C. F. Holder, Marvels Anim. Life, 177. The trying-pots were taken to a small inlet.
