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Pertaining to experiment; founded on, or derived from, experiment or trial; as, experimental science; given to, or skilled in, experiment; as, an experimental philosopher.

One who makes experiments; an experimenter. Whaterly.

To make experiments (upon); to experiment. J. S. Mill.

By experiment; by experience or trial. J. S. Mill.

To furnish or give experimental knowledge of; to make (one) to know; to make familiar; -- followed by with. Before a man can speak on any subject, it is necessary to be acquainted with it. Locke. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Isa. liii. 3.

Hence: A full collection or set of implements, or utensils, for a given duty, experimental or operative; any complex instrument or appliance, mechanical or chemical, for a specific action or operation; machinery; mechanism.

n 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. Whence hath the mind all the materials of reason and…

Experimental; of the nature of experiment. [R.]

To use or do for the first time, esp. so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally. No contrivance of our body, but some good man in Scripture hath handseled it with prayer. Fuller.

Absence or want of experience; lack of personal and experimental knowledge; as, the inexperience of youth. Failings which are incident to youth and inexperience. Dryden. Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world, and ignorance of mankind. Addison.

ed to the doctrine of the universe as expounded in Newton's "Principia," to the modern or experimental philosophy (as opposed to the theories of Descartes and others), and, most frequently, to the mathematical theory of universal gravitation. -- Newtonian telescope (Astron.), a reflecting telescope, in which rays from…

Fitted for trail or test; experimental; tentative; treating of attempts.

Fitted for trial beforehand; experimental. [R.] Sir H. Wotton.

h candor, have a more particular tendency to the good of their country. Addison. In every experimental science, there is a tendency toward perfection. Macaulay.

Of or pertaining to a trial or trials; essaying; experimental. "A slow, tentative manner." Carlyle. -- Ten*ta"tive*ly, adv.