try it on

Definitions

1. 1

   To test someone to see how much bad behaviour they will tolerate

   To test someone to see how much bad behaviour they will tolerate; to try to deceive someone to see how gullible they are.

   • “Come, come,” said James, putting his hand to his nose and winking at his cousin with a pair of vinous eyes, “no jokes, old boy; no trying it on on me. You want to trot me out, but it’s no go. In vino veritas, old boy […]”
   • “We must not submit,” said Mr. Eager. “I knew he was trying it on. He is treating us as if we were a party of Cook’s tourists.”
   • The Arabs hate the French more than they hate us. Having more reason to do so, they are more polite; in other words, they have learnt not to try it on, when they meet a European.
2. 2

   To try to start a sexual relationship (with someone).

   • No, this was only a young man trying it on with a girl, in that light, undergraduate way in which this kind could snap back.

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