1. A small part of something intended as representative of the whole
   "The chef offered a sample of the new dish to gauge customer reactions"
    
2. (statistics) items selected at random from a population and used to test hypotheses about the population
   "The researcher used a sample distribution to estimate the population parameters";
   - sample distribution, sampling
    
3. All or part of a natural object that is collected and preserved as an example of its class
   "The geologist collected rock samples from various layers of the cliff"

1. Take a sample of
   "Sample the regional dishes";
   - try, try out, taste

Derived forms: sampled, samples, sampling

Type of: consume, distribution, example, exemplum, have, illustration, ingest, instance, natural object, probability distribution, representative, statistical distribution, take, take in

Encyclopedia: Sample, Paul