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Definition of travail
From the M-W Editors
travail was our Word of the Day on 04/08/2015. Hear the podcast!
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Examples of travail in a Sentence
They finally succeeded after many months of travail.
no greater travail than that of parents who have suffered the death of a child
Recent Examples of travail from the Web
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The play centers on the travails of Dr. Mara Lowe-Cumbre (Deborah L. Sherman), a senior research fellow at the Florida State Center for Climate Studies.
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The episode is reminiscent of the travails of Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey, another awkward tech nerd turned opinionated billionaire.
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But Homecoming is breaking from the five previous Spidey movies by focusing more on the travails of being a teenager than battling the supervillain du jour.
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The Mariners have been stalwart supporters of the WBC and refuse to blame the event for their pitchers’ travails.
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Corridos are an old Mexican tradition, narrative ballads of border crossings and other travails.
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The Zohar, composed in Spain 700 years ago, spoke to the travails of the Jews, which must have seemed endless even all those centuries ago.
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The decor is eclectic, with plenty of personal mementos of Greeley’s travels and travails.
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The day after Eurovision, a popular talk show on Russia’s First Channel airs a special, Blacklist for Eurovision, devoted to Samoylova’s recent travails.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'travail'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
Etymologists are pretty certain that travail comes from trepalium, the Late Latin name of an instrument of torture. We don't know exactly what a trepalium looked like, but the word's history gives us an idea. Trepalium is derived from the Latin tripalis, which means "having three stakes" (from tri-, meaning "three," and palus, meaning "stake"). From trepalium sprang the Anglo-French verb travailler, which originally meant "to torment" but eventually acquired the milder senses "to trouble" and "to journey." The Anglo-French noun travail was borrowed into English in the 13th century, followed about a century later by travel, another descendant of travailler.
Origin and Etymology of travail
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from travailler to torment, labor, journey, from Vulgar Latin *trepaliare to torture, from Late Latin trepalium instrument of torture, from Latin tripalis having three stakes, from tri- + palus stake — more at pole
Synonym Discussion of travail
Examples of travail in a Sentence
Labor Day is the day on which we recognize those men and women who daily travail with little appreciation or compensation.
First Known Use of travail
13th century
TRAVAIL Defined for English Language Learners
travail
playDefinition of travail for English Language Learners
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: a difficult experience or situation
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: painful or difficult work or effort
Medical Dictionary
Learn More about travail
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