Experience \Ex*pe"ri*ence\, n. [F. exp['e]rience, L. experientia, tr. experiens, ?entis, p. pr. of experiri, expertus, to try; ex out + the root of pertus experienced. See Peril, and cf. Expert.]

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

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

2. 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.

3. 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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)