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]

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.


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