EXPE'RIENCE, n. [L. experientia, from experior, to try; ex and ant. perior; Gr. to attempt, whence pirate. Eng. to fare.The L. periculum, Eng. peril, are from the same root. We see the root of these words is to go, to fare, to drive, urge or press, to strain or stretch forward.

1. Trial, or a series of trials or experiments; active effort or attempt to do or to prove something, or repeated efforts. A man attempts to raise wheat on moist or clayey ground; his attempt fails of success; experience proves that wheat will not flourish on such a soil. He repeats the trial, and his experience proves the same fact. A single trial is usually denominated an experiment; experience may be a series of trials, or the result of such trials.
2. Observation of a fact or of the same facts or events happening under like circumstances.
3. Trial from suffering or enjoyment; suffering itself; the use of the senses; as, the experience we have of pain or sickness. We know the effect of light, of smell or of taste by experience. We learn the instability of human affairs by observation or by experience. We learn the value of integrity by experience. Hence,
4. Knowledge derived from trials, use, practice, or from a series of observations.

1. To try by use, by suffering or by enjoyment. Thus we all experience pain, sorrow and pleasure; we experience good and evil; we often experience a change of sentiments and views.
2. To know by practice or trial; to gain knowledge or skill by practice or by a series of observations.

1. Trial, as a test or experiment.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   She caused him to make experience
   Upon wild beasts. Spenser.

2. To make practical acquaintance with] to try personally; to prove by use or trial; to have trial of; to have the lot or fortune of; to have befall one; to be affected by; to feel; as, to experience pain or pleasure; to experience poverty; to experience a change of views.
   
   

   The partial failure and disappointment which he had experienced in India. Thirwall.

3. 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.
   
   
   "Guided by other's experiences." Shak.

   I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. P. Henry

   To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illumine only the track it has passed. Coleridge.

   When the consuls . . . came in . . . they knew soon by experience how slenderly guarded against danger the majesty of rulers is where force is wanting. Holland.

   Those that undertook the religion of our Savior upon his preaching, had no experience of it. Sharp.

4. To exercise; to train by practice.
   
   

   The youthful sailors thus with early care
   Their arms experience, and for sea prepare. Harte.

   To experience religion (Theol.), to become a convert to the doctrines of Christianity; to yield to the power of religious truth.

5. 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.
   
   

   Whence hath the mind all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer in one word, from experience. Locke.

   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. Sir J. Herschel.