Experiment
[ɪk'sperɪm(ə)nt;ek-] or [ɪk'sperɪmənt]
Definition
(noun.) the act of conducting a controlled test or investigation.
(noun.) a venture at something new or different; 'as an experiment he decided to grow a beard'.
(noun.) the testing of an idea; 'it was an experiment in living'; 'not all experimentation is done in laboratories'.
(verb.) to conduct a test or investigation; 'We are experimenting with the new drug in order to fight this disease'.
(verb.) try something new, as in order to gain experience; 'Students experiment sexually'; 'The composer experimented with a new style'.
Typed by Evangeline--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Atrial or special observation, made to confirm or disprove something doubtful; esp., one under conditions determined by the experimenter; an act or operation undertaken in order to discover some unknown principle or effect, or to test, establish, or illustrate some suggest or known truth; practical test; poof.
(n.) Experience.
(v. t.) To make experiment; to operate by test or trial; -- often with on, upon, or in, referring to the subject of an experiment; with, referring to the instrument; and by, referring to the means; as, to experiment upon electricity; he experimented in plowing with ponies, or by steam power.
(v. t.) To try; to know, perceive, or prove, by trial experience.
Edited by Daisy
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Trial, test, examination, assay, proof, touchstone, ordeal.
v. n. Make experiment, make trial.
Editor: Mamie
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Trial, illustration, test, exemplification
ANT:Conjecture, assumption, hypothesis
Checker: Zelig
Definition
n. a trial: something done to prove some theory or to discover something unknown.—v.i. to make an experiment or trial: to search by trial.—adj. Experiment′al founded or known by experiment: taught by experience: tentative.—v.i. Experiment′alise.—ns. Experiment′alist Exper′imentist one who makes experiments.—adv. Experiment′ally.—n. Experimentā′tion.—adj. Experiment′ative.
Inputed by Juana
Examples
- All Russia now is a huge experiment in that dictatorship (August, 1920). H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Well, you know, Standish, every dose you take is an experiment-an experiment, you know, said Mr. Brooke, nodding towards the lawyer. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- We have turned our attention to that experiment, on the suggestion of my family, and we find it fallacious. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- In a sense this is true, for no one is more impatient or intolerant of interruption when deeply engaged in some line of experiment. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- It is more laborious to accumulate facts than to reason concerning them; but one good experiment is of more value than the ingenuity of a brain like Newton's. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- I knew what the result of such an experiment would be. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Notwithstanding the establishment of a regular routine of manufacture and sale, Edison did not cease to experiment for improvement. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Nichols was also with us for a short time conducting a special series of experiments. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- When the science of static electricity was thus far developed, with a machine for generating it and a collector to receive it, many experiments followed. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The German government paid $1,250,000 into the Zeppelin fund for experiments, and contributed a large sum in addition to the maintenance of a balloon corps. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- There is nothing of the helter-skelter, slap-dash style in Edison's experiments. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- He made experiments, and at last succeeded in rendering the copper negatively electrical by the use of small pieces of tin, zinc, or iron nails. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Edison himself began at that point, and his note-books show that he made various experiments with this type of lamp at a very early stage. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Mr. Edison himself supplies the following data: During the electric-railway experiments at Menlo Park, we had a short spur of track up one of the steep gullies. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Phelps, another investigator, who had been experimenting along the same lines and had taken out several patents. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Experimenting on the machine swallowed a great deal of capital, and the stockholders of the company he had formed became impatient. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The question of stacking ensilage is sometimes raised, being urged upon our people by the practice of our English friends, who are experimenting quite largely in this direction. William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- It contained innumerable devices that he had worked out during the years he had been experimenting at his factory. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Again, in experimenting on the telephone, I had to improve the transmitter so I could hear it. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- John Stevens, the most celebrated boat builder and engineer of his day, was actively experimenting in America in the same line. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- In speaking of Edison's method of experimenting, another of his laboratory staff says: He is never hindered by theory, but resorts to actual experiment for proof. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- He experimented with bundles of iron wires variously insulated, also with sheet-iron rolled cylindrically and covered with iron wire wound concentrically. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Another and cheaper product experimented with is the pith of the cornstalk, which is much lighter than the cocoanut fiber and serves the same purpose. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- He made designs for firearms and experimented with guns to learn the carrying distance of various bores and balls. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- They had been far more thorough and more resourceful than those Europeans who had for some time experimented with aviation. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- For sixteen years Palissy experimented. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- He took up the question, experimented with fire-damp, and found that it was in reality light carburetted hydrogen. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Sebright expressly experimented with this object and failed. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Checked by Harlan