Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Causing strain, hardship, or distress.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of a kind to test severely or thoroughly; difficult; severe: as, a trying ordeal; trying circumstances; a color trying to one's complexion.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Adapted to try, or put to severe trial; severe; afflictive.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Difficult to
endure ;arduous . - adjective
Irritating ,stressful orbothersome . - verb Present participle of
try .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective extremely irritating to the nerves
- adjective hard to endure
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It ends up like that General in New Orleans, trying *trying* to get important information out about disaster preparedness, having to face reflexively antagonistic journalists and famously pronouncing, "You're stuck on stupid."
A frightening mix of bodily fluids. Ann Althouse 2007
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They seem trying to speak, trying to speak kindly.
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See here, Nimbus, if you'll do this I will promise that you and your family never shall be separated, and I'll give you fifty dollars now and a hundred dollars when you come back, if you'll just keep those other fool-niggers from trying -- mind 'I say _trying_ -- to run away and so getting shot.
Bricks Without Straw Albion Winegar Tourg��e 1871
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Behold him sitting on the side of the bed, trying to dress himself -- _trying_ to do it.
The Channings Henry Wood 1850
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And he knew not, apparently, how to express the hero's greatness _in word_, but by making him bethump the stage with tempestuous verbiage; which, to be sure, is not the style of greatness at all, but only of one trying to be great, and _trying_ to be so, because he is not so.
Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. With An Historical Sketch Of The Origin And Growth Of The Drama In England Henry Norman Hudson 1850
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I'm trying to think of the most unacceptable kind of tattoo but this is basically like trying to choose who is the worst dictator in history.
Life and style | guardian.co.uk Hadley Freeman 2010
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I'm trying to think of the most unacceptable kind of tattoo but this is basically like trying to choose who is the worst dictator in history.
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I'm trying to think of the most unacceptable kind of tattoo but this is basically like trying to choose who is the worst dictator in history.
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I'm trying to think of the most unacceptable kind of tattoo but this is basically like trying to choose who is the worst dictator in history.
Life and style | guardian.co.uk Hadley Freeman 2010
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I'm trying to think of the most unacceptable kind of tattoo but this is basically like trying to choose who is the worst dictator in history.
The Guardian World News Hadley Freeman 2010
whichbe commented on the word trying
A contranym: both negative ("hard to endure") and positive ("making an effort").
May 15, 2008
madmouth commented on the word trying
"It's very trying to have a drunken husband, you see; and it must be very trying to have twins three times in succession, don't you think?" (-Anne of Green Gables)
June 8, 2009