ordeal
noun
[ ɔːˈdiːəl ]
• a very unpleasant and prolonged experience.
• "the ordeal of having to give evidence"
Similar:
painful/unpleasant experience,
trial,
tribulation,
test,
nightmare,
trauma,
baptism of fire,
hell,
hell on earth,
misery,
trouble,
difficulty,
torture,
torment,
agony,
• an ancient test of guilt or innocence by subjection of the accused to severe pain, survival of which was taken as divine proof of innocence.
• "ordeals conducted in the twelfth century"
Origin:
Old English ordāl, ordēl, of Germanic origin; related to German urteilen ‘give judgement’, from a base meaning ‘share out’. The word is not found in Middle English (except once in Chaucer's Troilus ); modern use of ordeal (sense 2) began in the late 16th century, whence ordeal (sense 1) (mid 17th century).
