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Suppose you don't know someone and you are e.g. a manager and are going to hire him; then you talk to one of the other top managers regarding that new personnel; you can probably say:

  • I don't know him and his abilities and working potentials well; so I'm going to try him out to see how he does in a task.

I think the sentence above would be idiomatic. But my question is that whether it is possible to omit the word "out" from the compound verb "try out" or not.

As far as I know we only can "try something" meaning that "wear it". Am I right?

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    Not necessarily. Unfortunately, your example doesn't require the use of try. If that is a sentence you are planning to use in your work, I would recommend you rewrite it to read, "I don't know him and his abilities well, so I'm going to see how he does at a task." One does not usually "try out" a person.
    – Mark Hubbard
    Jul 26, 2016 at 14:00
  • @MarkHubbard Joe Maddon: "Baez can hit. I'm going to try him out at third." And theatrical examples would be trivial istm...
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Jul 26, 2016 at 21:28

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Try has a couple of meanings:

  • to attempt (try + -ing or try + infinitive)

  • to use as a trial or see how it works (try + noun)

  • to undergo a legal trial

Try out generally only has the second meaning above.

In your sentence, especially since you establish context with "I don't know him and his abilities and working potentials well," it's clear you mean the second meaning above, so out can be omitted.

The third meaning of try above will usually not be assumed unless legal proceedings are part of the context or conversation.

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  • Thank you @LawrenceC ; so as I understood you mean that in this sense one can use 'out' after the simple verb 'try' and can omit it; so its optional. do you confirm my take?
    – A-friend
    Jul 27, 2016 at 6:53
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    If try means the second meaning above, then you can usually omit out.
    – LawrenceC
    Jul 27, 2016 at 12:45

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