Ordeal

Ordeal, a test by fire, water, poison, wager of battle, or the like, of the innocence or guilt of persons in appeal thereby to the judgment of God in default of other evidence, on the superstitious belief that by means of it God would interfere to acquit the innocent and condemn the guilty, a test very often had recourse to among savage or half-civilised nations.

Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)

Orcus * Ordericus Vitalis
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Opus Operatum
Oran
Orange River
Orange River Colony
Orangemen
Oratorio
Oratory, Congregation of the
Orcagna
Orchardson, William Quiller
Orcus
Ordeal
Ordericus Vitalis
Orders in Council
Oreades
Oregon
Orelli, Conrad von
Orelli, Johann Kaspar von
Orestes
Orfila, M. J. Bonaventure
Organism
Organon

Nearby

Ordeal in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable