Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Experience

Experience (eks*pē"ri*ens) , noun

[French expérience, Latin experientia, tr. experiens, experientis, present participle of experiri, expertus, to try; ex out + the root of peritus experienced. See Peril, and compare Expert.]

1.
Trial, as a test or experiment. [Obsolete]
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. — Shakespeare
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

Experience (eks*pē"ri*enst) , transitive verb

1.
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
2.
To exercise; to train by practice.
The youthful sailors thus with early care Their arms experience, and for sea prepare. — Harte
Collocations (1)
To experience religion (Theology) , to become a convert to the doctrines of Christianity; to yield to the power of religious truth.