travail

noun tra·vail \ trə-ˈvāl , ˈtra-ˌvāl \

Definition of travail

1 a :work especially of a painful or laborious nature :toil

b :a physical or mental exertion or piece of work :task, effort

c :agony, torment

2 :labor, childbirth

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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

For Bloom, a single mother, the anger roiling in her son and his eventual outbursts of violence were just the latest in a litany of personal travails dating to her own youth.

— Alaska Dispatch News, "A neo-Nazi’s rage-fueled journey to Charlottesville," 19 Aug. 2017
One week into 2015, the newlywed told her Twitter followers about the travails of choosing her photos.

— the washington post, NOLA.com, "Couple ordered to pay wedding photographer $1M for trashing her," 2 Aug. 2017
Is the Netflix original film Burning Sands, about the torturous travails of fraternity hazing, actually original?

— tirdad derakhshani, Philly.com, "Willow Grove author sues writers, Netflix for allegedly stealing his story for frat film," 20 July 2017
His travels and travails take him all over Los Angeles and put him in contact with a range of eccentric, annoying folks.

— OregonLive.com, "Movie picks: 'Dunkirk,' 'A Ghost Story,' OMSI sci-fi film festival and more," 18 July 2017
Landline foregrounds Dana’s romantic travails, but none of these characters get short shrift.

— julia felsenthal, Vogue, "Got ’90s Nostalgia? Landline Is the Film for You," 18 July 2017
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.

— by christine dolen, miamiherald, "Mad Cat’s ‘Firemen’ keeps the humor dark," 3 July 2017
The episode is reminiscent of the travails of Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey, another awkward tech nerd turned opinionated billionaire.

— david z. morris, Fortune, "Minecraft Creator Sparks Cries of Homophobia," 2 July 2017
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.

— brian truitt, USA TODAY, "How do you build a better 'Spider-Man' movie? Go back to school," 2 July 2017

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

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 13th century

See Words from the same year

travail Synonyms

Synonyms

affliction, agony, anguish, excruciation, hurt, misery, pain, rack, strait (s), torment, torture, distress, tribulation, woe

Antonyms

fun, play

Related Words

discomfort; cross, crucible, trial; heartache, heartbreak, joylessness, sadness, sorrow, unhappiness; emergency, pinch; asperity, difficulty, hardship, rigor; ache, pang, smarting, soreness, stitch, throe, twinge; danger, jeopardy, trouble

Near Antonyms

comfort, consolation, solace; alleviation, assuagement, ease, relief; peace, security; well-being

Synonym Discussion of travail

work, labor, travail, toil, drudgery, grind mean activity involving effort or exertion. work may imply activity of body, of mind, of a machine, or of a natural force.