From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgive something a try/shot/whirlgive something a try/shot/whirl (also give something a go British English) informalTRY TO DO OR GET something to try to do something, especially something you have not done before I’m not usually much good at this sort of game, but I’ll give it a go. → give
Examples from the Corpus
give something a try/shot/whirl• Are you having trouble fixing the printer? Let me give it a shot.• He says he thought he'd give it a try, but he got stuck.• We wanted into the book badly, and gave it a shot one afternoon.• But on this case, I can not give it a try - that is the point.• Magnus grew fat on brown wholemeal scraps and Gina gave up trying to keep him away.• She had given up trying to read to him, play with him, teach him anything: he could not learn.• Vladimir finally gave up trying to teach me and returned to his sketching.• Joe gives her the shot twice a week. 