Ordeal

Look up ordeal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Ordeal means suffering a difficulty, and may refer to:

• Torture usually to overcome resistance to authority
  • Cruelty which may be incidental to an activity or gratuitous (for pleasure)
  • Interrogation#Torture, a means of obtaining information
  • Trial by ordeal, a religious-judicial practice to determine "the will of God"
• Initiation upon joining an organization
  • Hazing ritual humiliation, harassment or abuse
  • The first degree of membership in the Order of the Arrow, an organization within the Boy Scouts of America
• The American title of What Happened to the Corbetts, a 1939 novel by Nevil Shute
• Ordeal (autobiography), a 1980 autobiography of Linda Lovelace
• Ordeal (horse) (born 1957), New Zealand Standardbred racemare