trial

trial 1 test, proof, demonstration (see under PROVE)

Analogous words: inspection, examination, scanning, scrutiny (see under SCRUTINIZE): *process, proceeding, procedure

2 Trial, tribulation, affliction, visitation, cross are comparable when they denote suffering, misery, or unhappiness regarded as an infliction which cannot be escaped or avoided.

Trial implies a trying (as of one's endurance, patience, self-control, courage, or power to resist temptation). The word is applicable not only to distressing situations or conditions but to persons or things that cause distress or annoyance

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the trials and tribulations of traveling over desert— T. D. Clark

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he has always been a trial to his parents

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hotels are a trial of both spirit and flesh— Peffer

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Tribulation, when not completely interchangeable with trial, heightens the emphasis on the suffering or anguish involved in trial

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out of this time of trial and tribulation wtll be born a new freedom and glory for all mankind— Sir Winston Churchill

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and often connotes divinely permitted suffering as a test of virtue

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the just shall . . . after all their tribulations long, see golden days— Milton

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Affliction stresses the implication of imposed suffering that challenges one's powers of en-durance; the term need not suggest a relation between suffering and deserts

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if severe afflictions borne with patience merit the reward of peace, peace ye deserve— Wordsworth

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the dark and senseless afflictions of a nightmare— Kenneth Roberts

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Visitation heightens the implications of affliction by stressing the severity of suffering and by suggesting an ordeal; distinctively it often connotes retribution or retributive justice

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many people regarded the disastrous flood as a visitation

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woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation— Jer 1:27

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Cross in its applications closely parallels trial and tribulation but it may differ from them in its implications of suffering accepted and borne for the sake of a larger, unselfish good rather than as a test of character

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leaving her . . . solemnly elate at the recognition of the cross on whrch she must agonize for the happiness of some other soul— Deland

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The word often directly alludes to the words of Jesus to the rich young man: "Come, take up the cross, and follow me" as recorded in the Gospel according to Mark, or to his own carrying of the cross to the place of his crucifixion.

Analogous words: *distress, suffering, misery, agony: *sorrow, grief, anguish, woe, heartbreak: *misfortune, adversity: *difficulty, hardship, vicissitude, rigor