as in trying
to make an effort to do
he had been in gymnastics for some time before he even considered essaying that move
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Recent Examples of essaying
The four-man group plays and sings with equal verve whether essaying its own engaging songs or classics by Bill Monroe, The Carter Family and The Stanley Brothers.
—
George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Mar. 2026
George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for essaying
Verb
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Parents, guardians, aunts and uncles don't have time to read every book on the shelf while trying to pick something for the young reader in their life, so here are some simple ways to determine if a book is suitable for that child.—
Cody Godwin,
USA Today,
2 Apr. 2026
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Wolfe countered that his client was merely trying to settle the case.—
Bri Buckley,
CBS News,
2 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Drawing at least in part on information from Chalker’s defectors, the Pentagon constructed life-size underground facsimiles of Iranian nuclear facilities where the scientists had worked, attempting to duplicate even the thickness of the walls.—
David D. Kirkpatrick,
New Yorker,
30 Mar. 2026
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Much of the attack was captured on 911 calls made by the relatives, who were attempting to stop Valdez and treat the 83-year-old man’s injuries simultaneously.—
Nate Gartrell,
Mercury News,
29 Mar. 2026
Verb
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There are the striving, dysfunctional parents, and the politically calculating peers.—
Brittany Allen,
Literary Hub,
23 Mar. 2026
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Through the Daodejing, one of the central texts of Daoism, Laozi offers perspectives from a tumultuous period of status-striving in Chinese history – and shifts our focus from comparison and competition to contentment.—
Stephen Chen,
The Conversation,
18 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Essaying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/essaying. Accessed 4 Apr. 2026.
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