The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Trial \Tri"al\, n. [From Try.]
   1. The act of trying or testing in any manner. Specifically:

      [1913 Webster]
      (a) Any effort or exertion of strength for the purpose of
          ascertaining what can be done or effected.
          [1913 Webster]

                [I] defy thee to the trial of mortal fight.
                                                  --Milton.
          [1913 Webster]
      (b) The act of testing by experience; proof; test.
          [1913 Webster]

                Repeated trials of the issues and events of
                actions.                          --Bp. Wilkins.
          [1913 Webster]
      (c) Examination by a test; experiment, as in chemistry,
          metallurgy, etc.
          [1913 Webster]

   2. The state of being tried or tempted; exposure to suffering
      that tests strength, patience, faith, or the like;
      affliction or temptation that exercises and proves the
      graces or virtues of men.
      [1913 Webster]

            Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings.
                                                  --Heb. xi. 36.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. That which tries or afflicts; that which harasses; that
      which tries the character or principles; that which tempts
      to evil; as, his child's conduct was a sore trial.
      [1913 Webster]

            Every station is exposed to some trials. --Rogers.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. (Law) The formal examination of the matter in issue in a
      cause before a competent tribunal; the mode of determining
      a question of fact in a court of law; the examination, in
      legal form, of the facts in issue in a cause pending
      before a competent tribunal, for the purpose of
      determining such issue.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Test; attempt; endeavor; effort; experiment; proof;
        essay. See Test, and Attempt.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

trial
    n 1: the act of testing something; "in the experimental trials
         the amount of carbon was measured separately"; "he called
         each flip of the coin a new trial" [syn: test, trial,
         run]
    2: trying something to find out about it; "a sample for ten days
       free trial"; "a trial of progesterone failed to relieve the
       pain" [syn: trial, trial run, test, tryout]
    3: the act of undergoing testing; "he survived the great test of
       battle"; "candidates must compete in a trial of skill" [syn:
       test, trial]
    4: (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"; "most of these complaints are settled before
       they go to trial"
    5: (sports) a preliminary competition to determine
       qualifications; "the trials for the semifinals began
       yesterday"
    6: 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" [syn:
       trial, tribulation, visitation]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

277 Moby Thesaurus words for "trial":
   Olympic games, Olympics, R and D, acid test, adverse circumstances,
   adversity, affliction, aggravation, agony, anguish, annoyance,
   approach, arrangement, assay, assize, attempt, audition, bad luck,
   bad news, bane, basic training, bedevilment, bid,
   blank determination, blight, blue book, bore, bother, botheration,
   bothersomeness, bout, briefing, brouillon, bummer, calvary, care,
   change of venue, check, checking, clearing the decks, complication,
   concours, conditional, contest, control, control experiment,
   controlled experiment, court-martial, crack, crashing bore,
   criterion, cross, cross-examination, crown of thorns, crucial test,
   crucible, curse, cut and try, cut-and-try, deltoid, derby,
   determination, determined, devilment, difficulties, difficulty,
   distress, docimasy, dogging, downer, drag, dry run, dual, effort,
   empirical, empiricism, encounter, endeavor, engagement, enquiry,
   equipment, essay, exam, examen, examination, exasperation,
   experiment, experimental, experimental design, experimental method,
   experimental proof, experimentalism, experimentation, exploratory,
   familiarization, fan-shaped, feeling out, fiery ordeal, fight,
   final, final examination, first draft, fixing, fling, foundation,
   gambit, game, games, go, great go, grief, groundwork, gymkhana,
   harassment, hard knocks, hard life, hard lot, hard luck,
   hard times, hardcase, hardship, harrying, hassle, headache,
   hearing, heartbreak, heuristic, hit and miss, hit-or-miss, honors,
   hounding, inquest, inquiry, inquisition, irritant, irritation,
   joust, jury trial, kiteflying, lawsuit, lick, litigation,
   makeready, making ready, manufacture, match, matching, meet,
   meeting, midsemester, midterm, misery, misfortune, mistrial,
   mobilization, molestation, move, noble experiment, nuisance,
   number, offer, oral, oral examination, ordeal, persecution, pest,
   pilot, plague, planning, plight, plural, pragmatism,
   prearrangement, predicament, prelim, preliminaries, preliminary,
   preliminary act, preliminary step, prep, preparation,
   preparatory study, preparing, prepping, prerequisite, pressure,
   pretreatment, probation, probationary, probative, probatory,
   problem, processing, proof, propaedeutic, proving, provision,
   provisional, quiz, rally, readying, rencontre,
   research and development, resolute, rigor, rough draft,
   rough sketch, rule of thumb, sample, sea of troubles, shot,
   singular, sorrow, sounding out, spadework, stab, standard, step,
   stress, stress of life, stroke, strong bid, suffering,
   take-home examination, tentative, tentative method, tentativeness,
   test, test case, testing, three, three-in-one, tilt, touchstone,
   tournament, tourney, training, treatment, triadic, trial and error,
   trial by jury, trial run, trial-and-error, trials and tribulations,
   triangular, tribulation, trinal, trine, triple, triplex, tripos,
   triune, trouble, troubles, try, trying, tryout, undertaking,
   vale of tears, venture, venturesome, verification, verificatory,
   vexation, vexatiousness, vicissitude, visitation, viva, warm-up,
   whack, whirl, willing, woe, worriment, worry, written,
   written examination



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

TRIAL, practice., The examination before a competent tribunal, according to
the laws, of the land, of the facts put in issue in a cause, for the purpose
of determining such issue. 4 Mason, 232.
     2. There are various kinds of trial, the most common of which is trial
by jury. To insure fairness this mode of trial lust be in public; it is
conducted by selecting a jury in the manner prescribed by the local
statutes, who must be sworn to try the matter in dispute according to law,
and the evidence. Evidence is then given by the party on whom rests the onus
probandi or burden of the proof, as the witnesses are called by a party they
are questioned by him, and after they have been examined, which is called an
examination in chief, they are subject to a cross-examination by the other
party as to every part of their testimony. Having examined all his
witnesses, the party who supports the affirmative of the issue closes; and
the other party then calls his witnesses to explain his case or support his
part of the issue these are in the same manner liable to a cross-
examination. In case the parties should differ as to what is to be given in
evidence, the judge, must decide the matter, and his decision is conclusive
upon the parties so far as regards the trial; but, in civil cases, a bill of
exceptions (q.v.) way be taken, so that the matter may be examined before
another tribunal. When the evidence has been closed, the counsel for the
party who supports the affirmative of the issue, then addresses the jury, by
recapitulating the evidence and applying the law to the facts, and showing
on what particular points he rests his case. The opposite counsel then
addresses the jury, enforcing in like manner the facts and the law as
applicable to his side of the case; to which the other counsel has a right
to reply. It is then the duty of the judge to sum up the evidence and
explain to the jury the law applicable to the case this is called his
charge. (q.v.) The jurors then retire to deliberate upon their verdict, and,
after having agreed upon it, they come into court and deliver it in public.
In case they cannot agree they may, in cases of necessity, be discharged:
but, it is said, in capital cases they cannot be. Very just and merited
encomiums have been bestowed on this mode of trial, particularly in criminal
cases. Livingston's Rep. on the Plan of a Penal Code, 13 3 Story, Const.
1773. The learned Duponceau has given beautiful sketch of this tribunal;
"twelve invisible judges," said he, "whom the eye of the corrupter cannot
see, and the influence of the powerful cannot reach, for they are nowhere to
be found, until the moment when the balance of justice being placed in their
bands, they hear, weigh, determine, pronounce, and immediately disappear,
and are lost in the crowd of their fellow citizens." Address at the opening
of the Law Academy at Philadelphia. Vide, generally, 4 Com. Dig. 783; 7 Id.
522; 21 Vin. Ab. 1 Bac. Ab. h.t.; 1 Sell. Pr. 405 4 Bl. Com. ch. 27; Chit.
Pr. Index, h.t. 3 Bl. Com. ch. 22; 15 Serg. & R. 61; 22 Vin. Ab. h.t. See
Discharge of jury; Jury.
     3. Trial by certificate. By the English law, this is a mode of trial
allowed in such cases where the evidence of the person certifying is the
only proper criterion of the point in dispute. For, when the fact in
question lies out of the cognizance of the court, the judges must rely on
the solemn averments or information of persons in such station, as affords
them the most clear and complete knowledge of the truth.
     4. As therefore such evidence, if given to a jury, must have been
conclusive, the law, to save trouble and circuity, permits the fact to be
determined upon such certificate merely. 3 Bl. Com. 333; Steph. Pl. 122.
     5. Trial by the grand assize. This kind of trial is very similar to the
common trial by jury. There is only one case in which it appears ever to
have been applied, and there it is still in force.
     6. In a writ of right, if the defendant by a particular form of plea
appropriate to the purpose, (see the plea, 3 Chitty, 652,) denied the right
of the demandant, as claimed, he had the option, till the recent abolition
of the extravagant and barbarous method of wager by battel, of either
offering battel or putting himself on the grand assize, to try whether he or
the demandant "had the greater right." The latter course he may still take;
and, if he does, the court award a writ for summoning four knights to make
the election of twenty other recognitors. The four knights and twelve of the
recognitors so elected, together making a jury of sixteen, constitute what
is called the grand assise; and when assembled, they proceed to try the
issue, or (as it is called in this case) the mise, upon the question of
right. The trial, as in the case of a common jury, may be either at the bar
or nisi prius; and if at nisi prius, a nisi prius record is made up; and the
proceedings are in either case, in general, the same as where there is a
common jury. See Wils. R. 419, 541; 1 Holt's N. P. Rep. 657; 3 Chitty's Pl.
635; 2 Saund. 45 e; 1 Arch. 402. Upon the issue or mise of right, the wager
of battel or the grand assise was, till the abolition of the former, and the
latter still is, the only legitimate method of trial; and the question
cannot be tried by a jury in the common form. 1 B. & P. 192. See 3 Bl. Com.
351.
     7. Trial by inspection or examination. This trial takes place when for
the greater expedition of a cause, in some point or issue being either the
principal question or arising collaterally out of it, being evidently the
object of sense, the judges of the court, upon the testimony of their own
senses, shall decide the point in dispute. For where the affirmative or
negative of a question is matter of such obvious determination, it is not
thought necessary to summon a jury to decide it; who are properly called in
to inform the conscience of the court in respect of dubious facts, and,
therefore, when the fact, from its nature, must be evident to the court
either from ocular demonstration or other irrefragable proof, there the law
departs from its usual resort, the verdict of twelve men, and relies ou the
judgment alone. For example, if a defendant pleads in abatement of the suit
that the plaintiff is dead, and one appears and calls himself the plaintiff,
which the defendant denies; in this case the judges shall determine by
inspection and examination whether be be the plaintiff or not. 9 Co. 30; 3
Bl. Com. 331; Steph. Pl. 123.
     8. Judges of courts of equity frequently decide facts upon mere
inspection. The most familiar examples are those of cases where the
plaintiff prays an injunction on an allegation of piracy or infringement of
a patent or copyright. 5 Ves. 709; 12 Ves. 270, and the cases there cited.
And see 2 Atk. 141; 2 B. & C. 80; 4 Ves. 681; 2 Russ. R. 385; 1 V. & B. 67;
Cro. Jac. 230; 1 Dall. 166.
     9. Trial by the record. This trial applies to cases where an issue of
nul tiel record is joined in any action. If, on one side, a record be
asserted to exist, and the opposite party deny its existence, under the form
of traverse, that there is no such record remaining in court, as alleged,
and issue be joined thereon, this is called an issue of nul tiel record; and
the court awards, in such case, a trial by inspection and examination of the
record: Upon this the party, affirming its existence, is bound to produce it
in court, on a day given for the purpose, and if he fail to do so, judgment
is given for his adversary.
     10. The trial by record is not only in use when an issue of this kind
happens to arise for decision, but it is the only legitimate mode of trying
such issue, and the parties cannot put themselves upon the country. Steph.
Pl. 122; 2 Bl. Com. 330.
     11. Trial by wager of battel. In the old English law, this was a
barbarous mode of trying facts, among a rude people, founded on the
supposition that heaven would always interpose, and give the victory to the
champions of truth and innocence. This mode of trial was abolished in
England as late as the stat. 59 Geo. III., c. 46, A. D. 1818. It never was
in force in the United States. See 8 Bl. Com. 337; 1 Hale's Hist. 188; see a
modern case, 1 B. & A. 405.
     12. Trial by wager of law. This mode of trial has fallen into complete
disuse; but in point of law, it seems, in England, to be still competent in
most cases to which is anciently applied. The most important and best
established of these cases, is, the issue of nil debet, arising in action of
debt of simple contract, or the issue of non detinet, in an action of
detinue. In the declaration in these actions, as in almost all others, the
plaintiff concludes by offering his suit (of which the ancient meaning was
followers or witnesses, though the words are now retained as mere form,) to
prove the truth of his claim. On the other hand, if the defendant, by a plea
of nil debet or non detinet, deny the debt or detention, be may conclude by
offering to establish the truth of such plea, "against the plaintiff and his
suit, in such manner as the court shall direct." Upon this the court awards
the wager of law; Co. Ent. 119 a; Lill. Ent. 467; 3 Chit. Pl. 479; and the
form of this proceeding, when so awarded, is that the defendant brings into
court with him eleven of his neighbors, and for himself, makes oath that he
does not owe the debt or detain the property alleged and then the eleven
also swear that they believe him to speak the truth; and the defendant is
then entitled to judgment. 3 Bl. Com. 343; Steph. Pl. 124. Blackstone
compares this mode of trial to the canonical purgation of the catholic
clergy, and to the decisory oath of the civil, law. See Oath, decisory.
     13. Trial by witnesses. This species of trial by witnesses, or per
testes, is without the intervention of a jury
     14. This is the only method of trial known to the civil law, in which
the judge is left to form in his own breast his sentence upon the credit of
the witnesses examined; but it is very rarely used in the common law, which
prefers the trial by jury in almost every instance.
     15. In England, when a widow brings a writ of dower, and the tenant
pleads that the tenant is not dead, this being looked upon as a dilatory
plea, is, in favor of the widow, and for greater expedition, allowed to be
tried by witnesses examined before the judges; and so, says Finch, shall no
other case in our law. Finch's Law, 423. But Sir Edward Coke mentions
others: as to try whether the tenant in a real action was duly summoned; or
the validity of a challenge to a juror; so that Finch's observation must be
confined to the trial of direct and not collateral issues. And in every
case, Sir Edward Coke lays it down, that the affirmative must be proved by
two witnesses at least. 3 Bl. Com. 336.



The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

TRIAL, n.  A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the
blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors.  In order to
effect this purpose it is necessary to supply a contrast in the person
of one who is called the defendant, the prisoner, or the accused.  If
the contrast is made sufficiently clear this person is made to undergo
such an affliction as will give the virtuous gentlemen a comfortable
sense of their immunity, added to that of their worth.  In our day the
accused is usually a human being, or a socialist, but in mediaeval
times, animals, fishes, reptiles and insects were brought to trial.  A
beast that had taken human life, or practiced sorcery, was duly
arrested, tried and, if condemned, put to death by the public
executioner.  Insects ravaging grain fields, orchards or vineyards
were cited to appeal by counsel before a civil tribunal, and after
testimony, argument and condemnation, if they continued _in
contumaciam_ the matter was taken to a high ecclesiastical court,
where they were solemnly excommunicated and anathematized.  In a
street of Toledo, some pigs that had wickedly run between the
viceroy's legs, upsetting him, were arrested on a warrant, tried and
punished.  In Naples and ass was condemned to be burned at the stake,
but the sentence appears not to have been executed.  D'Addosio relates
from the court records many trials of pigs, bulls, horses, cocks,
dogs, goats, etc., greatly, it is believed, to the betterment of their
conduct and morals.  In 1451 a suit was brought against the leeches
infesting some ponds about Berne, and the Bishop of Lausanne,
instructed by the faculty of Heidelberg University, directed that some
of "the aquatic worms" be brought before the local magistracy.  This
was done and the leeches, both present and absent, were ordered to
leave the places that they had infested within three days on pain of
incurring "the malediction of God."  In the voluminous records of this
_cause celebre_ nothing is found to show whether the offenders braved
the punishment, or departed forthwith out of that inhospitable
jurisdiction.