Tried

//tɹaɪd// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of try form-of, participle, past

    "The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Tested, hence, proven to be firm or reliable.
  2. 2
    Put on trial, taken before a lawcourt.
Adjective
  1. 1
    tested and proved to be reliable wordnet
  2. 2
    tested and proved useful or correct wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
ascertainedassuredattestedblasecertifiedcommitted

Example

More examples

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried."

Etymology

From Middle English tried, tryed, equivalent to try + -ed.

Related phrases

time-triedtried and testedtried and truetried and trustedwell-tried

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.