Word of the Day:
ordeal
What It Means
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.
A painful or trying experience.
The poisonous ordeal bean or Calabar bean.
trial by ordeal
Ordeal in Context
“All the same, nearly eight hours on the footplate covering a distance of 320 miles, with an ambient temperature of up to 103° for much of the time, proved an ordeal which I would not lightly undertake again.”
Did You Know?
From Middle English ordel, ordal, from Medieval Latin ordālium or inherited from its source Old English ordēl, ordāl (“ordeal, judgement”), from Proto-West Germanic *uʀdailī (“judgement”, literally “an out-dealing”), from *uʀdailijan (“to deal out; dispense”). For more, see Old English or-, English deal. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Uurdeel (“judgement; verdict”), West Frisian oardiel (“judgement”), Dutch oordeel (“judgement, discretion”), Low German Oordeel (“judgement; verdict”), German Urteil (“judgement, verdict”).
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ordeal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the word and reformatted its meaning, examples and origin.
Cite this entry: “ordeal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ordeal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.