Good Books

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.

Or"de*al, a. Of or pertaining to
trial by ordeal.

Or"der (?), n. [OE. ordre, F.
ordre, fr. L. ordo, ordinis. Cf. Ordain,
Ordinal.]

1. Regular arrangement; any methodical or
established succession or harmonious relation; method; system;
as: (a) Of material things, like the books in a
library.


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