Verb

(en-verb)

To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.

* , chapter=22

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.}}

*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-21, volume=411, issue=8892, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Magician’s brain , passage=[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.}}

(label) To divide; to separate.

# To separate (precious metal etc.) from the ore by melting; to purify, refine.

#* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.vii:

euery feend his busie paines applide, / To melt the golden metall, ready to be tride .

# (label) To winnow; to sift; to pick out; frequently followed by out .

To test, to work out.

# To make an experiment. Usually followed by a present participle.

# To put to test.

#*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}

#* 1922 , , Miss Mapp , :

“So mousie shall only find tins on the floor now,” thought Miss Mapp. “Mousie shall try his teeth on tins.”

#* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan

, title= Wild Plants to the Rescue , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.

# To taste, sample, etc.

# To prove by experiment; to apply a test to, for the purpose of determining the quality; to examine; to prove; to test.

#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

Let the end try the man.

# To put on trial.

#* 1900 , , (The House Behind the Cedars) , Chapter I

The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.

To experiment, to strive.

# To have or gain knowledge of by experience.

#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Try the Libyan heat or Scythian cold.

(Milton)

# To work on something.

# (label) To do; to fare.

# To settle; to decide; to determine; specifically, to decide by an appeal to arms.

#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

Left I the court, to see this quarrel tried .

(label) To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.

To strain; to subject to excessive tests.

Verb

To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.

# Followed by in'' (or ''at , etc.) Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business).

I work''' in a national park;  she '''works''' in the human resources department;  he mostly '''works in logging, but sometimes works in carpentry

# Followed by as . Said of one's job title

#* , chapter=17

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.}}

I work as a cleaner.

# Followed by for . Said of a company or individual who employs.

she works''' for Microsoft;  he '''works for the president

# Followed by with . General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients.

I work''' closely with my Canadian counterparts;  you '''work''' with computers;  she '''works with the homeless people from the suburbs

To effect by gradual degrees.

he worked''' his way through the crowd;  the dye '''worked''' its way through;  using some tweezers, she '''worked the bee sting out of her hand

* Addison

So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains / Of rushing torrents and descending rains, / Works itself clear, and as it runs, refines, / Till by degrees the floating mirror shines.

To embroider with thread.

To set into action.

To cause to ferment.

To ferment.

* Francis Bacon

the working of beer when the barm is put in

To exhaust, by working.

To shape, form, or improve a material.

To operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.

To operate in or through; as, to work the phones.

To provoke or excite; to influence.

To use or manipulate to one’s advantage.

To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.

To cause to work.

To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about

(figuratively) To influence.

To effect by gradual degrees; as, to work into the earth.

To move in an agitated manner.

A ship works in a heavy sea.

* Addison

confused with working sands and rolling waves

To behave in a certain way when handled;

(transitive, with two objects, poetic) To cause (someone) to feel (something).

* {{quote-book, passage=So sad it seemed, and its cheek-bones gleamed, and its fingers flicked the shore; / And it lapped and lay in a weary way, and its hands met to implore; / That I gently said: “Poor, restless dead, I would never work you woe; / Though the wrong you rue you can ne’er undo, I forgave you long ago.”

, author=Robert W. Service , title=(Ballads of a Cheechako), chapter=(The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike), year=1909}}

(obsolete) To hurt; to ache.

* 1485 , Sir (Thomas Malory), ''(w, Le Morte d'Arthur), Book XXI:

‘I wolde hit were so,’ seyde the Kynge, ‘but I may nat stonde, my hede worchys so—’