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/truy"euhl, truyl/, n.1. Law.a. the examination before a judicial tribunal of the facts put in issue in a cause, often including issues of law as well as those of fact.b. the determination of a person's guilt or innocence by due process of law.2. the act of trying, testing, or putting to the proof.3. test; proof.4. an attempt or effort to do something.5. a tentative or experimental action in order to ascertain results; experiment.6. the state or position of a person or thing being tried or tested; probation.7. subjection to suffering or grievous experiences; a distressed or painful state: comfort in the hour of trial.8. an affliction or trouble.9. a trying, distressing, or annoying thing or person.10. Ceram. a piece of ceramic material used to try the heat of a kiln and the progress of the firing of its contents.11. on trial,a. undergoing examination before a judicial tribunal.b. undergoing a probationary or trial period.adj.12. of, pertaining to, or employed in a trial.13. done or made by way of trial, proof, or experiment.14. used in testing, experimenting, etc.15. acting or serving as a sample, experimental specimen, etc.: a trial offer.[1520-30; TRY + -AL2]Syn. 2, 3, 5. examination. TRIAL, EXPERIMENT, TEST imply an attempt to find out something or to find out about something. TRIAL is the general word for a trying of anything: articles sent for ten days' free trial. EXPERIMENT is a trial conducted to prove or illustrate the truth or validity of something, or an attempt to discover something new: an experiment in organic chemistry. TEST is a more specific word, referring to a trial under approved and fixed conditions, or a final and decisive trial as a conclusion of past experiments: a test of a new type of airplane. 4. endeavor, essay, struggle. 7. grief, tribulation, distress, sorrow, trouble, hardship. See affliction.
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IIn law, a judicial examination of issues of fact or law for the purpose of determining the rights of the parties involved.Attorneys for the plaintiff and the defendant make opening statements to a judge or jury, then the attorney for the plaintiff makes his case by calling witnesses, whom the defense attorney may cross-examine. Unless the case is then dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence, the defense attorney next takes a turn calling witnesses, whom the plaintiff's attorney cross-examines. Both sides make closing arguments. In a trial before a jury, the judge instructs the jury on the applicable laws, and the jury retires to reach a verdict. If the defendant is found guilty, the judge then hands down a sentence.II(as used in expressions)* * *
Universalium. 2010.
