The phrase "attempted to define the" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when discussing efforts made to clarify or explain a particular concept or term.
Example: "In her thesis, she attempted to define the complexities of human behavior in social settings."
Alternatives: "sought to clarify the" or "tried to explain the".
Petitioner himself has not attempted to define the term "interest" as used in § 1963(a)(1).
Several studies have attempted to define the dimensions of an aesthetically pleasing eyebrow.
Encomienda, in Spain's American and Philippine colonies, legal system by which the Spanish crown attempted to define the status of the indigenous population.
Another "top secret" document attempted to define the level of "generalised destruction" the UK would be prepared to wreak on Russian cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg.
Using a deterministic model, it is attempted to define the spatial and temporal boundaries of Hortonian (infiltration excess runoff) and Hewlettian (saturation excess overland flow) hydrological behaviour.
Here, we attempted to define the borders of pericentromeric heterochromatin by an original definition condensed chromatin regions with limited accessibility23 using the DNA inaccessibility measures as a functional proxy.
Five years ago, in the Sunday magazine of this newspaper, a young novelist, Clellon Holmes, the author of a book called "Go," and a friend of Kerouac's, attempted to define the generation Kerouac had labeled.
From the 1970s, as the field of comic studies was first emerging as an academic discipline, scholars and others have attempted to define the word comics and to generate a critical terminology appropriate to support that definition.
The looming storm did not dampen the intensity of the political dueling on Sunday morning as representatives from both parties attempted to define the fall debate ahead of the start of the Republican convention.
This study aimed to assess the capability of pluronic surfactants to stabilise topical pressurised hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) emulsions and attempted to define the formulation characteristics that had an impact upon foam properties.
Aims: We attempted to define the evolution of anxiety levels in a population of parents of low-birth-weight premature infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia enrolled in a prospective home O2 therapy program.
