Noun: ordeal or'deel
- A severe or trying experience
"Surviving the wilderness for a week was a true ordeal for the inexperienced campers"
- 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
"In medieval times, trial by ordeal often involved walking on hot coals or being submerged in water";
- trial by ordeal
Derived forms: ordeals
Type of: experience, trial
Encyclopedia: Ordeal