Ordeal
[ɔː'diːəl] or [ɔr'dil]
Definition
(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.
(noun.) a severe or trying experience.
Typist: Stanley--From WordNet
Definition
(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.
(n.) Any severe trial, or test; a painful experience.
(a.) Of or pertaining to trial by ordeal.
Checked by Basil
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Trial, test, touchstone, proof, assay, experiment.
Inputed by Katherine
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Test, trial, probation, experiment
ANT:Argument, plea, discussion, Investigation, evidence
Typed by Keller
Definition
n. a dealing out or giving of just judgment: an ancient form of referring a disputed question to the judgment of God by lot fire water &c.: any severe trial or examination.
Checker: Mollie
Examples
- Faculties less delicately balanced, constitutions less tenderly organised, must have suffered under such an ordeal as this. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- It was a trial by ordeal. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- But the disagreeable ordeal could not be dodged. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- But it is full of indignation to-night after undergoing the ordeal of consigning to the tomb the remains of a faithful, a zealous, a devoted adherent. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- But in the stress of this ordeal, Gerald too lost his hold on the outer, daily life. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Sustain me through the ordeal I dread and must undergo! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- I was experiencing an ordeal: a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Not far from the limit of impecuniosity was Edison himself, as he landed in Boston in 1868 after this wintry ordeal. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Her soft nature recoiled from this ordeal, which had none of the stimulus of conflict to goad her through it. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Good, bad, or indifferent, she said, the pupil's sketches must pass through the fiery ordeal of the master's judgment--and there's an end of it. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- We talked a little; but both our minds were preoccupied by the coming ordeal. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- He has fought successfully two contested elections, and has come out of the ordeal unscathed. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- The next domestic trial we went through, was the Ordeal of Servants. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- He watched tearlessly--ordeals that he exacted should be passed through--fearlessly. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
Typed by Barnaby