travail

noun

tra·vail | \ trə-ˈvāl

, ˈtra-ˌvāl\

Definition of travail

(Entry 1 of 2)

1a : 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

travail

verb

tra·vail | \ trə-ˈvāl

, ˈtra-ˌvāl; in prayer-book communion service usually ˈtra-ˌvāl\

travailed; travailing; travails

Definition of travail (Entry 2 of 2)

intransitive verb

1 : to labor hard : toil

2 : labor sense 3

Synonyms Choose the Right Synonym Did You Know? Example Sentences Learn More about travail

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Choose the Right Synonym for travail

Noun

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. too tired to do any work labor applies to physical or intellectual work involving great and often strenuous exertion. farmers demanding fair compensation for their labor travail is bookish for labor involving pain or suffering. years of travail were lost when the house burned toil implies prolonged and fatiguing labor. his lot would be years of back-breaking toil drudgery suggests dull and irksome labor. an editorial job with a good deal of drudgery grind implies labor exhausting to mind or body. the grind of the assembly line

Did You Know?

Noun

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.