tryout

Etymology

It is formed from English try + out, as a noun use of the phrasal verb try out, and is an Americanism.^[2][3][4] The verb phrase meant "to test the possibilities of someone or something" by 1888, in American English, and more broadly "to examine, test" by 1785; earlier still try out meant to draw out or extract, as fat or grease (late 14th century), and in cookery to sift finely (early 14th century).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A selective trial or test of performance: 1903, in Scientific American, of Cup challengers in their try-outs in British waters.^[5][4] Etymonline records the noun by 1900,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates it to 1900–05.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the first the noun covered both a selective trial, in which candidates are tested, and an experimental trial of something, a trial run;^[5][6] the Historical Thesaurus places it both among experiments and among theatrical trial runs.^[6] In the theatre it came to mean a performance of a play before its official opening, often away from a main theatrical centre, to test the audience's response.^[2][4][7] In sport, it is a test of players hoping for a place on a team.^[4][8] The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang lists it as US slang of 1903, with later sporting examples.^[9]

Timeline

• 1903 – a selective or experimental trial, a test of performance.^[5][4] Etymonline records it by 1900.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A test of the abilities of candidates, as for a place on a sports team or a part in a play: She went to the soccer tryouts on Saturday.^{[7][4][10][8]}
2. A performance of a play before its official opening, to test how audiences respond.^[7][4][2]
3. Any trial or test of fitness for some purpose; a trial run: the new engine's first tryout.^[5][2][11]

Related words

• try
• out
• trial

Usage notes

British dictionaries spell it with a hyphen, try-out,^[5][12][13] and Longman labels it American English.^[8] The Macquarie Dictionary marks it as colloquial in Australian English.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2009), 5th ed., Harlow: Pearson Longman
9. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
10. ^ Webster's New World College Dictionary (2014), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers