trialling

trial tri‧al [ˈtraɪəl] noun [countable]

1. LAW a legal process in which a court of law examines a case to decide whether someone is guilty of a crime:

• Three former brokers were ordered to stand trial for securities fraud.

2. a process of testing a product to see whether it is safe, effective etc:

• The company expects clinical trials (= scientific tests on a drug to see if it is safe before it is sold ) to continue for two years.

— trial verb [transitive] :

• The language awareness course has been trialled with encouraging results.

— trialling noun [uncountable] :

• the development, trialling and pre-testing of materials

acˈceptance ˌtrial MANUFACTURING

testing by a customer of newly delivered equipment to check that it works correctly:

• He required some modifications to be carried out, after which final acceptance trials took place.

ˈfield ˌtrial

a test on a new piece of equipment done in the place where it is to be used rather than in a Laboratory, factory etc; = FIELD TEST:

• The system is designed to be carried on emergency vehicles and has undergone successful field trials with the Seattle Fire Department.

— compare pilot

3. by/​through trial and error if you do something by or through trial and error, you try several different ways of doing it to get the result you want:

• I got these machine settings right purely by trial and error.

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trialling UK US (also trialing) /ˈtraɪəlɪŋ/ noun [U] PRODUCTION

► the process of formally testing a product to discover how effective or suitable it is: »

In just two weeks of trialling the company has already signed up tens of thousands of customers.