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ordeal - 5 dictionary results

or⋅deal

  [awr-deel, -dee-uhl, awr-deel]
Use ordeal in a Sentence
–noun
1. any extremely severe or trying test, experience, or trial.
2. a primitive form of trial to determine guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused person to fire, poison, or other serious danger, the result being regarded as a divine or preternatural judgment.
Origin:
bef. 950; ME ordal, OE ordāl; c. D oordeel, G Urteil. See a- 3 , dole 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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or·deal   (ôr-dēl')   
n.  
  1. A difficult or painful experience, especially one that severely tests character or endurance. See Synonyms at trial.
  2. A method of trial in which the accused was subjected to physically painful or dangerous tests, the result being regarded as a divine judgment of guilt or innocence.

[Alteration (influenced by deal1) of Middle English ordal, trial by ordeal, from Old English ordāl; see dail- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Ordeal

Or"de*al\ ([^o]r"d[-e]*al), n. [AS. ord[=a]l, ord[=ae]l, a judgment; akin to D. oordeel, G. urteil, urtheil; orig., what is dealt out, the prefix or- being akin to [=a]- compounded with verbs, G. er-, ur-, Goth. us-, orig. meaning, out. See Deal, v. & n., and cf. Arise, Ort.]

1. An ancient form of test to determine guilt or innocence, by appealing to a supernatural decision, -- once common in Europe, and still practiced in the East and by savage tribes.

Note: In England ordeal by fire and ordeal by water were used, the former confined to persons of rank, the latter to the common people. The ordeal by fire was performed, either by handling red-hot iron, or by walking barefoot and blindfold over red-hot plowshares, laid at unequal distances. If the person escaped unhurt, he was adjudged innocent; otherwise he was condemned as guilty. The ordeal by water was performed, either by plunging the bare arm to the elbow in boiling water, an escape from injury being taken as proof of innocence, or by casting the accused person, bound hand and foot, into a river or pond, when if he floated it was an evidence of guilt, but if he sunk he was acquitted. It is probable that the proverbial phrase, to go through fire and water, denoting severe trial or danger, is derived from the ordeal. See Wager of battle, under Wager.

2. Any severe trial, or test; a painful experience.

Ordeal bean. (Bot.) See Calabar bean, under Calabar.

Ordeal root (Bot.) the root of a species of Strychnos growing in West Africa, used, like the ordeal bean, in trials for witchcraft.

Ordeal tree (Bot.), a poisonous tree of Madagascar (Tanghinia, or Cerbera, venenata). Persons suspected of crime are forced to eat the seeds of the plumlike fruit, and criminals are put to death by being pricked with a lance dipped in the juice of the seeds.

Ordeal

Or"de*al\, a. Of or pertaining to trial by ordeal.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : ordeal
Spanish: mala experiencia, terrible experiencia,
German: schwere Prüfung,
Japanese: 試練
More Translations »

ordeal 
O.E. ordel, lit. "judgment, verdict," from P.Gmc. noun *uzdailjam (cf. O.Fris. urdel, Du. oordeel, Ger. urteil "judgment"), lit. "that which is dealt out" (by the gods), from *uzdailijan "share out," related to O.E. adælan "to deal out" (see deal). The notion is of the kind of arduous physical test (such as walking blindfolded and barefoot between red-hot plowshares) that was believed to determine a person's guilt or innocence by immediate judgment of the deity, an ancient Teutonic mode of trial. Eng. retains a more exact sense of the word; its cognates in Ger., etc., have been generalized. Curiously absent in M.E., and perhaps reborrowed 16c. from M.L. or M.Fr., which got it from Gmc. Metaphoric extension to "anything which tests character or endurance" is attested from 1658. The prefix or- survives in Eng. only in this word, but was common in O.E. and other Gmc. languages (Goth. ur-, O.N. or-, etc.) and was originally an adv. and prep. meaning "out."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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