trial


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trial

1. Law
a. the judicial examination of the issues in a civil or criminal cause by a competent tribunal and the determination of these issues in accordance with the law of the land
b. the determination of an accused person's guilt or innocence after hearing evidence for the prosecution and for the accused and the judicial examination of the issues involved
c. (as modifier): trial proceedings
2. a motorcycling competition in which the skills of the riders are tested over rough ground
3. Ceramics a piece of sample material used for testing the heat of a kiln and its effects
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

What does it mean when you dream about a trial?

Dreaming of being on trial may indicate that the dreamer needs to be more accepting of himself or herself and less judgmental of others.

The Dream Encyclopedia, Second Edition © 2009 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.

trial

[trīl]
(statistics)
One of a series of duplicate experiments.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Trial

Bardell vs. Pickwick
trial for breach of promise results in imprisonment of both parties for not paying damages and costs. [Br. Lit.: Dickens Pickwick Papers]
Trial by Jury
trial of a breach-of-promise suit is dismissed when the judge decides to many the plaintiff. [Br. Opera: Gilbert and Sullivan Trial by Jury]
Trial, The
Joseph K. is tried by a strange court for an unspecified crime. [Ger. Lit.: Kafka The Trial]
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Trial

 

a concept used in probability theory. Trials may have one (and only one) of the outcomes A1, A2,. . ., An Each outcome of a trial is considered an “event” that has a certain probability P(Ak). Here Trial always holds.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
If you ever read this tale, you will likely ask yourself more questions than I should care to answer: as for instance how the Appin murder has come to fall in the year 1751, how the Torran rocks have crept so near to Earraid, or why the printed trial is silent as to all that touches David Balfour.
Occasionally other trials than those of the Old Bailey would be included in the package of books we received from London; among these my husband found and read with avidity:--
`I've so often read in the newspapers, at the end of trials, "There was some attempts at applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court," and I never understood what it meant till now.'
Would it have been desirable to have composed the court for the trial of impeachments, of persons wholly distinct from the other departments of the government?
And now, the trial being over, the good citizens of the Emerald City scattered to their homes, well content with the day's amusement.
This done, he went on to the pavement to make trial of the bow; thrice did he tug at it, trying with all his might to draw the string, and thrice he had to leave off, though he had hoped to string the bow and shoot through the iron.
You others, therefore, who are stronger than I, make trial of the bow and get this contest settled."
He was now the first to take the bow and arrow, so he went on to the pavement to make his trial, but he could not string the bow, for his hands were weak and unused to hard work, they therefore soon grew tired, and he said to the suitors, "My friends, I cannot string it; let another have it, this bow shall take the life and soul out of many a chief among us, for it is better to die than to live after having missed the prize that we have so long striven for, and which has brought us so long together.
At the trial, and still with honest belief, several testified to having seen Ernest prepare to throw the bomb, and that it exploded prematurely.
As Ernest said at the trial: "Does it stand to reason, if I were going to throw a bomb, that I should elect to throw a feeble little squib like the one that was thrown?
Those Parisians who flocked to the Assize Court at Versailles, to be present at the trial of what was known as the "Mystery of The Yellow Room," will certainly remember the terrible crush at the Saint-Lazare station.
The trial itself was presided over by Monsieur de Rocouz, a judge filled with the prejudice of his class, but a man honest at heart.