Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus. teen) a general term of abuse.

1999		G. Seal Lingo 104: Generalised insults included [...] TRY-HARD, someone thought to be putting too much effort into being liked or accepted, but also used in a generally derogatory manner.
2007		D. McDonald Luck in the Greater West (2008) 9: I think ’is just a rich prick. Some try-hard Nat wants ta bang.

1. an attempt at imposition or deceit.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1867		Tasmanian Times (Hobart, Tas.) 18 July 2/4: Why has it been insisted that it was an essential element of their policy? Has it been (to use the slang vernacular) only A Try On?
1873		Sl. Dict. 330: An extortionate charge or a begging-letter is frequently described as ‘a regular Try-On.’.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 7 June 45: [caption] It has never been satisfactorily settled whether this was or was not a ‘try-on’ of our old friend Ally’s.
1887		‘’Arry on His Critics’ in Punch 17 Dec. 280/1: That’s fudge. That’s an ink-slinger’s try-on at patter.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 16 Aug. 14/4: One man, when asked by a reporter if he intended to put in a claim [for damages], said: ‘Wouldn’t that be a bit of a try-on?’ On former occasions the heavy city men have not been so scrupulous, but tried it on and duly brought it off.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 20/3: ‘Well, [...] it’s a pretty cool try-on; hang me if it isn’t. I can understand ’em trying to bluff you in the first instance, but this summons’ – he broke off short with a shrug of his burly shoulders.
1917		‘Taffrail’ Sub 195: It’ll all fizzle out. It’s merely a try-on.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 584: In a knockingshop it was count of a tryon between two smugglers.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 14 Mar. [synd. cartoon strip] [title] A Real Try On.
1952		‘Josephine Tey’ Singing Sands 49: ‘He didn’t really believe that I would let him come to Scoone instead. It was just a try-on’.
1959		J. Gielgud letter 13 May in Mangan John Gielgud’s Letters (2004) 231: I suspect it [i.e. a blackmail attempt] is only a try-on and they should be firm and undismayed!
1977		G.F. Newman A Prisoner’s Tale 19: It was a try on. Some prisoners would be intimidated [...] Lynn had no intention of even starting out that way.

2. any form of attempt at something.

1888

‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 176: Our first try-on in the coach line was with the Goulburn mail.

a trial run, a trial period, an experimental attempt.

1903		Scientific America 30 May 414/1: Cup challengers in their try-outs in British waters [DA].
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 34: The sarcastic blonde chorine who had ruined her tryout before the great Zannie.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 211: Didn’t you have a tryout with the Sox?
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 28: Chiddy had, he thought, the bright idea of approaching the beaten champion, Tommy Burns, to ask him if he would give his boy a try-out.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 40: Simes insisted that he show up for a tryout.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 103: We’ll give you a one-week tryout as a possible One.
1998		J. O’Connor Salesman 121: I gave him a good try-out.

(US campus) a warning or a response to deter someone.

1981		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 3: don’t even try it – a response of disagreement or disapproval: ‘I have a big test tomorrow, so I’ll wash the dishes in the morning.’ ‘Don’t even try it.’.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.

1. (S.Afr.) to attempt to pass oneself off as white; less common are try for black, try for coloured.

1950		S.G.L. Millin King of the Bastards 2: ‘Cape boys try for white,’ said Daniel Buys. ‘Who came of the business of passing soldiers and sailors with slave women,’ said Sybrand Buys.
1960		A. Fugard Notebooks (1983) 9: Rather than the mental torture of ‘trying for white’ he has chosen the crude, physical hardships of being a coloured.
1973		Vista of the U.N. Associated 46: He has been sneered at because of a tendency to ‘try for white.’.
1983		J.C. Carr Craft of Crime 47: Some of the worst tragedies involve families who try for white and they’re made white and they move into a white neighborhood and the whites reject them.
1998		in K.K. Prah Beyond the Color Line 123: It is not true that all Coloured people who are fair try for white.
2002		K. McCormick Lang. in Cape Town’s District Six 204: A child whose mother abandoned her and the rest of her District Six family to ‘try for white’ further north in the country.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1990		B. Maclennan Apartheid: The Lighter Side 107: Publications committee reasons for banning the script of the film Die Springbok, about a ‘try-for-white’ coloured.
2000		J. Parini British Writers 53: Initially Mandla has little use for Lea, whom he considers a ‘try-for-White’ traitor and a snob.

1. (also try on) to live by thieving.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Try On. To endeavour. To live by thieving. Coves who try it on; professed thieves.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. to attempt to get away with something, usu. that which one is not entitled to have.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 276: try it on to make any attempt, or essay, where success is doubtful. So to try it on with a woman, signifies to attempt her chastity.
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 24: [T]he Nob Pitchers try it with pricking in the Garter.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 221: The little mot [...] is trying it on Jerry’s clie.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 109: Come, Jules, you are buttering me down. You are trying it on!
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 139: ‘What do you say?’ ‘That it won’t do; so it’s no use a-trying it on, Fagin,’ replied Nancy.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 July 3/1: Peg, having tried it on with the beak, got the first step towards justice on tick.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. IV 50: Don’t you think we can try it on agin!
1849		Sam Sly 26 May 2/3: Ah! old boy, it’s no use your trying it on with a certain milliner; it won’t do.
1849		J.P. Townsend Rambles in New South Wales 221: Some of the convicts, however, would ‘try it on’ [...] their object being by all means to escape labour.
1857		J.E. Ritchie Night Side of London 153: What, you are trying it on again, are you? you know you can’t come here.
1865		R.S. Surtees Facey Romford’s Hounds 21: Most of them thought Facey looked like a clown, yet there was something about his roguish physiognomy that prevented their trying it on with him.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 152: It is in foggy weather some men are tempted to ‘try it on’ for a run, but I doubt if any ever escape.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 68: He tried it on with Jim once, but he knocked the seven senses out of him inside three rounds.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 8 Apr. 1/5: ‘Do the police hound down a youth who has fallen from rectitude?’ You bet, they do. let Mister James just try it on and find out.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 213: Well, he was like all men; he tried it on.
1903		J. London People of the Abyss 71: Wouldn’t advise you to try it on, my lad.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Nov. 1/1: One bounder trying it on at the Palace Gardens was violently evicted.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 30: Hilary says that if Robin [Hood] tried those things ‘on’ to-day (that’s his funny way of expressing himself), he’d be sentenced to serve years and years in prison.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 407: You’ll need to rise precious early, you sinner there, if you want to diddle the Almighty God. [...] Just you try it on.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 138: Don’t try anythin’ on willya, because I would just hate to get really tough with you.
1943		R. Chandler Lady in the Lake (1952) 138: Try it on again, and it won’t be the flat of a hand I’ll use on you.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 174: If he tried anything on, they’d give him what for.
1962		H. Livings Nil Carborundum (1963) Act I: Take no notice. He’s trying it on.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 219: I knew they were just trying it on, testing me like.
1983		A. Payne ‘Get Daley!’ Minder [TV script] 62: Well, they’re trying it on, aren’t they?
1998		M. Newall ‘Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knyght’ in Indep. Weekend Rev. 26 Dec. 1: She was trying it onne but Gawayne kepede coole.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 121: That’s why I knocked back that Ali Osman cowboy. Fucking trying it on, he were.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 47: The accuser is [...] attempting a ‘confidence trick’ [...] or ‘trying it on’.

3. to make a sexual pass (at someone).

1812		see sense 2.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 185: The fireman-waterman, full of everything else but water, may be seen [i.e. in an adjacent illus.] ‘trying it on’ with dumpling Bet.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 25 Mar. 3/4: He is recommended to confine himself to Ladies du pave, instead of trying it on with married ones.
1849		Paul Pry 26 Feb. n.p.: Paul Advises [...] Mr. T—s S—w [...] not to try it on so stiff with the young lady at a certain public-house.
1884		‘Experiences of a Cunt Philosopher’ in Randiana 73: Clinton, you are [...] such an incredible cunt hunter. [...] There may be some stray ‘stuff’ drop in while we are there, but I warn you not to try it on with Mrs. Leveson.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 162: When I tried it on with Brown, she said, ‘Why don’t you ask Harriet, you young devilskin?’.
1890		Sporting Times 22 Feb. 1/2: I will call and try it on to-morrow at five.
1911		Truth (Brisbane) 15 Jan. 9/5: [T]hey shut up and say nothing, vengeful [sic] vowing the while that the next ‘Iydy’ who ‘tries it on’ will wake up the wrong dog.
1935		(con. 1920s) McArthur & Long No Mean City 86: Ah wasny trying on anything [...] It was yoursel’ that jumped to conclusions, so it was.
1958		K. Williams Diaries 12 Jan. 139: The grey-haired piece tried it on, in the car, coming home! Cheek.
1962		R. Hauser Homosexual Society 56: Once, after a party, I tried it on. Frankly, I thought he wanted it but was too shy.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 54: They started chatting, and this girl [...] asked Caroline, ‘Has Rose ever tried it on with you?’.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 78: Some perverted little rent-boy tried it on.

(orig. US) to try out, to see if something (often fig.) will work.

1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 195: He nodded to the City Hall across the street. ‘Shall we go over and try it on for size?’.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: Try. Try it on for size.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 174: Try that one on for size.

usu. of a play or film, to experiment with, to try out.

1888		Sporting Times n.p.: ‘Bootle’s Baby’ will on the 7th of May be produced somewhere in the provinces. This is what the Americans call trying it on a dog [B&L].
1889		Referee 3 Feb. in Ware (1909) 174/2: Arrangements have been made by Irvine Bacon and Charles Groves to try it ere long on the matinee dog – probably at the Haymarket.
1897		Daily Tel. 4 Feb. in Ware (1909) 251/1: If any enterprising person desires to make money from a play or a composition of music he does not boldly attempt the experiment upon the public. His shrewd suspicion that they would avenge the torture induces him to adopt the preliminary precaution of ‘trying it on the dog.’.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Aug. 21/1: Another said to his servant, referring to a tin of boulli-beef: ‘Haw, M--, just taste that and tell me what you think; if it isn’t too beastly I’ll try it.’ Talk about ‘trying it on the dog!’ [Ibid.] 6 Oct. 24/4: Maud Williamson’s dramatised version of ‘Barabbas,’ tried on the dog at Broken Hill, left the dog alive but sleepy; for the curtain didn’t come down till something to twelve.
1911		S.F. Call 9 July 27/2: One of those small new theaters where a new act is ‘tried on the dog’.

to attempt to persuade someone who is otherwise unwilling.

1809		J. Mackcoull Abuses of Justice 54: Damn my eyes, we will try it on with you.
1864		Derby Day 118: Molly! [...] Don’t you try it on with me!
1999		Indep. Rev. 30 June 11: Barbara Woodhouse never tried it on with toads.

(US campus) to denigrate, to make negative comments about.

2001

J. Austin Taking the Train 177: We wouldn’t go around other people’s shit and try to front, so we weren’t having that shit around our way.