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Definition of Ordeal
1. Noun. A severe or trying experience.
2. Noun. A primitive method of determining a person's guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused person to dangerous or painful tests believed to be under divine control; escape was usually taken as a sign of innocence.
Definition of Ordeal
1. n. 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.
2. a. Of or pertaining to trial by ordeal.
Definition of Ordeal
1. Noun. A painful or trying experience. ¹
2. Noun. A trial in which the accused was subjected to a dangerous test (such as ducking in water), divine authority deciding the guilt of the accused. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Ordeal
1. a severely difficult or painful experience [n -S]
Medical Definition of Ordeal
1.
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.
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.
Lexicographical Neighbors of Ordeal
Literary usage of Ordeal
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Commentaries on the Laws of England by Herbert Broom, Edward Alfred Hadley, William Wait, William Blackstone (1875)
"Л very ancient (a) species of trial was that by ordeal, designated judicium Dei
... Fire-ordeal was performed either by taking up in the hand, unhurt, ..."
2. Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources: Intended to by Edward Potts Cheyney (1922)
"If any one shall have given pledge to undergo the ordeal of 46. Rn'«8 for iron ....
let him go three days beforehand to the priest, ..."
3. The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution: An Historical Treatise by Hannis Taylor (1898)
"2 After the decree Trial by or- of the Lateran Council forbidding it, trial by
ordeal became obsolete,3 and the petty jury gradually took its place as a ..."
4. A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos: Including a by William Ward (1818)
"In this ordeal the accused person is weighed ; and after bathing, ... The next
mode of ordeal U with water: the accused person, accompanied by two or throe ..."
5. A History of English Law by William Searle Holdsworth, John Burke (1903)
"The trial by ordeal rests upon the belief that God will intervene by a sign ...
Without taking account of less important forms of the ordeal,11 we find that ..."
6. Our Wild Indians: Thirty-three Years Personal Experience Among the Red Men by Richard Irving Dodge (1884)
"The Warrior's ordeal — Panting for the Knife — How Suffering is Courted — Stalwart
Endurance of Pain—The Greatest of Indian Virtues — Remarkable Religious ..."
7. A Source Book of Mediæval History: Documents Illustrative of European Life by Frederic Austin Ogg (1908)
"THE ordeal 33. Tests by Hot Water, Cold Water, and Fire AMONG the early Germans
the settling of disputes and the testing of the guilt or innocence of an ..."
8. A Complete Manual of Canon Law by Oswald Joseph Reichel (1896)
"were formerly in use—that of the boiling water, that of the red- hot iron (22),
another the ordeal of single combat (23), or that called ..."
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