"try it on" meaning in English

See try it on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-try it on.ogg [Australia] Forms: tries it on [present, singular, third-person], trying it on [participle, present], tried it on [participle, past], tried it on [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} try it on (third-person singular simple present tries it on, present participle trying it on, simple past and past participle tried it on)
  1. (idiomatic, colloquial) To test someone to see how much bad behaviour they will tolerate; to try to deceive someone to see how gullible they are. Tags: colloquial, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-try_it_on-en-verb-38tKBbdy Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English phrasal verbs with particle (on), English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys, English terms with placeholder "it" Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 80 20 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 80 20 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs with particle (on): 76 24 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 84 16 Disambiguation of English terms with placeholder "it": 73 27
  2. (idiomatic, colloquial) To try to start a sexual relationship (with someone). Tags: colloquial, idiomatic Categories (topical): Sex Related terms: try-on
    Sense id: en-try_it_on-en-verb-eEDkId5- Disambiguation of Sex: 11 89

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for try it on meaning in English (4.0kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tries it on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "trying it on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tried it on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tried it on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "try it on (third-person singular simple present tries it on, present participle trying it on, simple past and past participle tried it on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "80 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "80 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "76 24",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs with particle (on)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "84 16",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "73 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908, E. M. Forster, A Room with a View, London: Edward Arnold, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 95",
          "text": "“We must not submit,” said Mr. Eager. “I knew he was trying it on. He is treating us as if we were a party of Cook’s tourists.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 1, p. 35",
          "text": "The Arabs hate the French more than they hate us. Having more reason to do so, they are more polite; in other words, they have learnt not to try it on, when they meet a European.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To test someone to see how much bad behaviour they will tolerate; to try to deceive someone to see how gullible they are."
      ],
      "id": "en-try_it_on-en-verb-38tKBbdy",
      "links": [
        [
          "test",
          "test"
        ],
        [
          "behaviour",
          "behaviour"
        ],
        [
          "tolerate",
          "tolerate"
        ],
        [
          "deceive",
          "deceive"
        ],
        [
          "gullible",
          "gullible"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial) To test someone to see how much bad behaviour they will tolerate; to try to deceive someone to see how gullible they are."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "11 89",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Sex",
          "orig": "en:Sex",
          "parents": [
            "All topics",
            "Reproduction",
            "Fundamental",
            "Life",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1926, Nevil Shute, chapter 1, in Marazan, London: Cassell",
          "text": "“[…] Tell her I’ll be outside the house from eleven o’clock onwards. Tell her to leave the morning-room window open and to switch on the light in her bedroom when it’s safe for me to come in.”\n“She won’t believe me if I go and tell her that,” I said. “No girl would. She’d think I was trying it on.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1969, Hortense Calisher, chapter 11, in The New Yorkers, Boston: Little, Brown, page 319",
          "text": "No, this was only a young man trying it on with a girl, in that light, undergraduate way in which this kind could snap back.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To try to start a sexual relationship (with someone)."
      ],
      "id": "en-try_it_on-en-verb-eEDkId5-",
      "links": [
        [
          "sexual",
          "sexual"
        ],
        [
          "relationship",
          "relationship"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial) To try to start a sexual relationship (with someone)."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "40 60",
          "word": "try-on"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-try it on.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/88/En-au-try_it_on.ogg/En-au-try_it_on.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/En-au-try_it_on.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "try it on"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs with particle (on)",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Sex"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tries it on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "trying it on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tried it on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tried it on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "try it on (third-person singular simple present tries it on, present participle trying it on, simple past and past participle tried it on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "try-on"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908, E. M. Forster, A Room with a View, London: Edward Arnold, Part 1, Chapter 6, p. 95",
          "text": "“We must not submit,” said Mr. Eager. “I knew he was trying it on. He is treating us as if we were a party of Cook’s tourists.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 1, p. 35",
          "text": "The Arabs hate the French more than they hate us. Having more reason to do so, they are more polite; in other words, they have learnt not to try it on, when they meet a European.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To test someone to see how much bad behaviour they will tolerate; to try to deceive someone to see how gullible they are."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "test",
          "test"
        ],
        [
          "behaviour",
          "behaviour"
        ],
        [
          "tolerate",
          "tolerate"
        ],
        [
          "deceive",
          "deceive"
        ],
        [
          "gullible",
          "gullible"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial) To test someone to see how much bad behaviour they will tolerate; to try to deceive someone to see how gullible they are."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1926, Nevil Shute, chapter 1, in Marazan, London: Cassell",
          "text": "“[…] Tell her I’ll be outside the house from eleven o’clock onwards. Tell her to leave the morning-room window open and to switch on the light in her bedroom when it’s safe for me to come in.”\n“She won’t believe me if I go and tell her that,” I said. “No girl would. She’d think I was trying it on.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1969, Hortense Calisher, chapter 11, in The New Yorkers, Boston: Little, Brown, page 319",
          "text": "No, this was only a young man trying it on with a girl, in that light, undergraduate way in which this kind could snap back.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To try to start a sexual relationship (with someone)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sexual",
          "sexual"
        ],
        [
          "relationship",
          "relationship"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, colloquial) To try to start a sexual relationship (with someone)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-try it on.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/88/En-au-try_it_on.ogg/En-au-try_it_on.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/En-au-try_it_on.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "try it on"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.