trying — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Difficult to endure; arduous.

   Examples

   "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a little trying to do so much typewriting?"

   More examples (1)

   Troutbeck is a tiny village midway between Penrith and Keswick in a very sparsely populated part of Cumberland, and it used to be said by facetious travellers that the reason why it ever had a station at all was to give the engine a rest after it had struggled up the long and trying incline from Threlkeld.

   Tryin’ times, what the world is talkin’ about / You got confusion all over the land, yeah

2. Irritating, stressful or bothersome.

Noun

1. The act by which one tries something; an attempt.

   Examples

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   In a variety of places, O'Shaughnessy argues that there is an internal relation between trying and the events that tryings produce. For example, he argues that tryings are not independently specifiable except as would-be causes of physical events.

   When I write with others, the pauses and manyfold attempts to get at an idea mirror the cadence of a conversation or the tryings of finding a word that evades the tongue. That searching is such a beautiful thing.

Adjective

1. hard to endure

   Examples

   fell upon trying times

2. extremely irritating to the nerves

   Synonyms

   nerve-rackingnerve-wrackingstressful

   Examples

   nerve-racking noise

   the stressful days before a war

   More examples (1)

   a trying day at the office