make trial of

present singular third person makes trial of · participle present making trial of · participle past made trial of · past made trial of

1. archaicidiomaticTo check the quality, reliability, performance or genuineness of (something or someone).

   1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 2001, Book 2, Chapter 10, p. 415, Will you not at least let me make trial of my plan?

   4 more examples

   […] he supposed it better, rather to craue the doubtfull mercie of his lord, than to make triall of the earle of Murreis certeine reuenge.

   1587, Raphael Holinshed, et al, Holinshed’s Chronicles, volume 2, London: Henry Denham, page 315

   1675, Robert Boyle, Experimental Notes of the Mechanical Origine or Production of Fixtness, Oxford: R. Davis, Section 2, Experiment 9, p. 66, […] I thought among other things of the following Experiment, and made Trial of it.

   It [lime] is the wood, which the ingenious Gibbon used, after making trial of several kinds, as the most proper for that curious sculpture, which adorns some of the old houses of our nobility.

   1791, William Gilpin, Remarks on Forest Scenery, London: R. Blamire, Book 1, Section 4, pp. 55-56

   […] he stood up in the midst with his face to the door, and drawing his great sword, made trial of the room he had to wield it in.

   1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 9, in Kidnapped, New York: Scribner, page 87

   Synonyms: assay, prove, put to the test, test, try, try out