different between try vs sick

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?, IPA^(key): /t?a?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Etymology 1

From Middle English trien (“to try a legal case”), from Anglo-Norman trier (“to try a case”), Old French trier (“to choose, pick out or separate from others, sift, cull”), of uncertain origin. Believed to be a metathetic variation of Old French tirer (“to pull out, snatch”), from Gothic ???????????????????? (tiran, “to tear away, remove”), from Proto-Germanic *teran? (“to tear, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”), see tear. Related to Occitan triar (“to pick out, choose from among others”). Alternatively or by confluence, the Old French is from Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin *triare, of unknown origin.

Replaced native Middle English cunnen (“to try”) (from Old English cunnian), Middle English fandien (“to try, prove”) (from Old English fandian), and Middle English costnien (“to try, tempt, test”) (from Old English costnian).

Alternative forms

• trie (obsolete)

Verb

try (third-person singular simple present tries, present participle trying, simple past and past participle tried)

1. To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.
2. (obsolete) To divide; to separate.
   1. To separate (precious metal etc.) from the ore by melting; to purify, refine.
   2. (one sort from another) To winnow; to sift; to pick out; frequently followed by out.
      • 1531, Thomas Elyot, The Boke named the Governour

   • the wylde corne, beinge in shap and greatnesse lyke to the good, if they be mengled, with great difficultie will be tried out

   1. (nautical) To extract oil from blubber or fat; to melt down blubber to obtain oil
   2. To extract wax from a honeycomb
3. To test, to work out.
   1. To make an experiment. Usually followed by a present participle.

   2. To put to test.
      • 1922, E. F. Benson, Miss Mapp, p. 89:

        “So mousie shall only find tins on the floor now,” thought Miss Mapp. “Mousie shall try his teeth on tins.”
   3. (specifically) To test someone's patience.

   4. (figuratively, chiefly used in the imperative) To receive an imminent attack; to take.
      • 1999, Mona the Vampire, "The X-Change Student" (season 1, episode 6a):

        Mona: Try this vampire bolt on for size!

        Cedric: Why don't you try this alien bolt?

   5. To taste, sample, etc.

   6. To prove by experiment; to apply a test to, for the purpose of determining the quality; to examine; to prove; to test.
   7. (with indirect interrogative clause) To attempt to determine (by experiment or effort).
   9. (law) To put on trial.
      • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, 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.

      • 1987, Hadi Khorsandi, trans. Ehssan Javan, “It Didn’t Quite Work Out—2” in The Ayatollah and I:

        I sit in front of the mirror and try myself. I am no impartial judge, otherwise I would have had myself executed several times over by now.
4. To experiment, to strive.
   1. To have or gain knowledge of by experience.

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

   2. To work on something.

   3. (obsolete) To do; to fare.

   4. To settle; to decide; to determine; specifically, to decide by an appeal to arms.
   5. (euphemistic, of a couple) To attempt to conceive a child.
5. (nautical) To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.
6. To strain; to subject to excessive tests.

7. (slang, chiefly African-American Vernacular, used with another verb) To want

Usage notes

• (to attempt): This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. Conjugations unmarked for tense can take and instead of to, for which also see Citations:try.

• (to make an experiment): This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing).
• See Appendix:English catenative verbs
• In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb try had the form triest, and had triedst for its past tense.
• Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form trieth was used.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (to attempt): attempt, endeavor, fand, mint, take a run at, take a stab at
• (to taste, sample, etc): sample, taste

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

try (plural tries)

1. An attempt.
2. An act of tasting or sampling.

3. (rugby) A score in rugby league and rugby union, analogous to a touchdown in American football.
4. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) A screen, or sieve, for grain.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

5. (American football) a field goal or extra point

Synonyms

• (an attempt): bash, go, stab, whirl
• (an act of tasting or sampling): sampling, taste, tasting
• (a score in rugby): touchdown (American football)
• (the point after touchdown): extra point (American football)

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Probably from Old French trié.

Adjective

try (comparative more try, superlative most try)

1. (obsolete) Fine, excellent.

Anagrams

• Tyr

Cornish

Alternative forms

• (Standard Written Form) trei
• (Standard Written Form) tri

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *tri, from Proto-Celtic *tr?s, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes.

Numeral

try

1. (Standard Cornish) three

Related terms

• teyr

See also

• (cardinal number): Previous: dew. Next: peswar

Portuguese

Noun

try m (plural tries)

1. try (a score in rugby)

   Synonym: ensaio

2. (programming) try (block of code that may trigger exceptions)

Welsh

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /tr??/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /tri?/

Verb

try

1. third-person singular present indicative/future of troi

Mutation

Westrobothnian

Numeral

try n

1. neuter nominative/accusative of tri (“three”)

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?k, IPA^(key): /s?k/
• Rhymes: -?k
• Homophones: sic, Sikh

Etymology 1

From Middle English sik, sike, seek, seke, seok, from Old English s?oc (“sick, ill”), from Proto-West Germanic *seuk, from Proto-Germanic *seukaz (compare West Frisian siik, Dutch ziek, German siech, Norwegian Bokmål syk, Norwegian Nynorsk sjuk), from Proto-Indo-European *sewg- (“to be troubled or grieved”); compare Middle Irish socht (“silence, depression”), Old Armenian ???????? (hiwcanim, “I am weakening”).

Adjective

sick (comparative sicker, superlative sickest)

1. (more common in the US) In poor health; ill.

   Synonyms: ill, not well, poorly, sickly, unwell

   Antonyms: fit, healthy, well

2. Having an urge to vomit.

   Synonym: nauseated

   • 1913, The Texas criminal reports, page 8:

     In the meantime the old man had gotten up and gone out in the yard and began to vomit. Henry said I believe I feel sick and got up and went out. He went out one door and his father went out the other one. I did not think there was anything wrong with the coffee and I asked my wife to pour this out […]

   • 1918, Cecil Day Lewis, The Whispering Roots, Jonathan Cape, page 140:

     Q. Didn't he complain he was sick before he commenced to vomit?

     A. He did, just before he said, to me, “I feel sick,” I asked him if he wanted to throw up and he said yes.

   • 1958, Gene D'Olive, Chiara, Signet Book

     […] trying hard to cry. Crying's good. Crying teaches him to breathe. But I wish he weren't crying from hunger. I feel dizzy. I sit down and feel a little sick. Maybe I'll vomit, too. No, I never vomit. I feel sick, but I won't vomit. I never vomit.

   • 2013, Cheryl Rainfield, Stained, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (?ISBN), page 38:

     I feel sick, like I might vomit, and I'm more tired than I can ever remember feeling.

3. (colloquial) Mentally unstable, disturbed.

   Synonyms: disturbed, twisted, warped

4. (colloquial) In bad taste.

5. Tired of or annoyed by something.
6. (slang) Very good, excellent, awesome, badass.

   Synonyms: rad, wicked

   Antonyms: crap, naff, uncool

7. In poor condition.

8. (agriculture) Failing to sustain adequate harvests of crop, usually specified.

Synonyms

• (in poor health): See also Thesaurus:diseased
• (having an urge to vomit): See also Thesaurus:nauseated
• (slang: excellent): See also Thesaurus:excellent

Derived terms

Descendants

• ?? Navajo: sxih

Translations

Noun

sick (uncountable)

1. (Britain, Australia, colloquial) Vomit.
2. (Britain, colloquial) (especially in the phrases on the sick and on long-term sick) Any of various current or former benefits or allowances paid by the Government to support the sick, disabled or incapacitated

Synonyms

• (vomit): See Thesaurus:vomit

Translations

Verb

sick (third-person singular simple present sicks, present participle sicking, simple past and past participle sicked)

1. (colloquial) To vomit.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To fall sick; to sicken.
   • circa 1598, William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, part 2:

     Our great-grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.

Etymology 2

Variant of sic, itself an alteration of seek.

Verb

sick (third-person singular simple present sicks, present participle sicking, simple past and past participle sicked)

1. (rare) Alternative spelling of sic
   • 1920, James Oliver Curwood, "Back to God's Country"

     "Wapi," she almost screamed, "go back! Sick 'em, Wapi—sick 'em—sick 'em—sick 'em!"

   • 1938, Eugene Gay-Tifft, translator, The Saga of Frank Dover by Johannes Buchholtz, 2005 Kessinger Publishing edition, ?ISBN, page 125,

     When we were at work swabbing the deck, necessarily barelegged, Pelle would sick the dog on us; and it was an endless source of pleasure to him when the dog succeeded in fastening its teeth in our legs and making the blood run down our ankles.

   • 1957, J. D. Salinger, "Zooey", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey, 1991 LB Books edition, page 154,

     "...is just something God sicks on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world."

   • 2001 (publication date), Anna Heilman, Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman, University of Calgary Press, ?ISBN, page 82,

     Now they find a new entertainment: they sick the dog on us.

Anagrams

• CKIs