n. Work, pleasure, any facet of life gone by, as distinguished from that which is only imagined or anticipated. Trial, as a test or experiment. A degree of proficiency in a profession or occupation. The effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintance; actual enjoyment or suffering. An act of knowledge, one or more, by which single facts or general truths are ascertained; experimental or inductive knowledge; hence, implying skill, facility, or practical wisdom gained by personal knowledge, feeling or action; as, a king without experience of war. Experience may be acquired in two ways; either, first by noticing facts without any attempt to influence the frequency of their occurrence or to vary the circumstances under which they occur; this is observation; or, secondly, by putting in action causes or agents over which we have control, and purposely varying their combinations, and noticing what effects take place; this is experiment.
- vb. To make practical acquaintance with; to try personally; to prove by use or trial; to have trial of; to have the lot or fortune ...