the act of subjecting to experimental test in order to determine how well something works; "they agreed to end the testing of atomic weapons"
an examination of the characteristics of something; "there are laboratories for commercial testing"; "it involved testing thousands of children for smallpox"
(law) legal proceedings consisting of the judicial examination of issues by a competent tribunal; "most of these complaints are settled before they go to trial"
(law) the determination of a person's innocence or guilt by due process of law; "he had a fair trial and the jury found him guilty"
trying something to find out about it; "a sample for ten days free trial"; "a trial of progesterone failed to relieve the pain"
an annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event; "his mother-in-law's visits were a great trial for him"; "life is full of tribulations"; "a visitation of the plague"
(sports) a preliminary competition to determine qualifications; "the trials for the semifinals began yesterday"
a statistical relation between two or more variables such that systematic changes in the value of one variable are accompanied by systematic changes in the other
derived from experiment and observation rather than theory; "an empirical basis for an ethical theory"; "empirical laws"; "empirical data"; "an empirical treatment of a disease about which little is known"
a set of techniques for exploring underlying motives and a method of treating various mental disorders; based on the theories of Sigmund Freud; "his physician recommended psychoanalysis"