Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Ordeal \Or"de*al\ ([^o]r"d[-e]*al), n. [AS. ord[=a]l, ord[=ae]l,
   a judgment; akin to D. oordeel, G. urteil, urtheil; orig.,
   what is dealt out, the prefix or- being akin to [=a]-
   compounded with verbs, G. er-, ur-, Goth. us-, orig. meaning,
   out. See {Deal}, v. & n., and cf. {Arise}, {Ort}.]
   1. 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.

   Note: In England ordeal by fire and ordeal by water were
         used, the former confined to persons of rank, the
         latter to the common people. The ordeal by fire was
         performed, either by handling red-hot iron, or by
         walking barefoot and blindfold over red-hot plowshares,
         laid at unequal distances. If the person escaped
         unhurt, he was adjudged innocent; otherwise he was
         condemned as guilty. The ordeal by water was performed,
         either by plunging the bare arm to the elbow in boiling
         water, an escape from injury being taken as proof of
         innocence, or by casting the accused person, bound hand
         and foot, into a river or pond, when if he floated it
         was an evidence of guilt, but if he sunk he was
         acquitted. It is probable that the proverbial phrase,
         to go through fire and water, denoting severe trial or
         danger, is derived from the ordeal. See {Wager of
         battle}, under {Wager}.

   2. Any severe trial, or test; a painful experience.

   {Ordeal bean}. (Bot.) See {Calabar bean}, under {Calabar}.

   {Ordeal root} (Bot.) the root of a species of {Strychnos}
      growing in West Africa, used, like the ordeal bean, in
      trials for witchcraft.

   {Ordeal tree} (Bot.), a poisonous tree of Madagascar
      ({Tanghinia, or Cerbera, venenata}). Persons suspected of
      crime are forced to eat the seeds of the plumlike fruit,
      and criminals are put to death by being pricked with a
      lance dipped in the juice of the seeds.

Source : WordNet®

ordeal bean
     n : dark brown highly poisonous seed of the calabar-bean vine;
         source of physostigmine and used in native witchcraft
         [syn: {calabar bean}]