travail Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child
    lying-in; childbed; labor; parturiency; confinement; labour.
    • she was in labor for six hours
  2. noun use of physical or mental energy; hard work
    exertion; elbow grease; effort; sweat.
    • he got an A for effort
    • they managed only with great exertion
  3. verb work hard
    moil; dig; grind; labour; drudge; toil; labor; fag.
    • She was digging away at her math homework
    • Lexicographers drudge all day long

WordNet

Trav"ail noun
Etymology
F. travail; cf. Pr. trabalh, trebalh, toil, torment, torture; probably from LL. trepalium a place where criminals are tortured, instrument of torture. But the French word may be akin to L. trabs a beam, or have been influenced by a derivative from trabs (cf. Trave). Cf. Travel.
Definitions
  1. Labor with pain; severe toil or exertion.
    As everything of price, so this doth require travail. Hooker.
  2. Parturition; labor; as, an easy travail.
Trav"ail intransitive verb
Etymology
F. travailler, OF. traveillier, travaillier, to labor, toil, torment; cf. Pr. trebalhar to torment, agitate. See Travail, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Travailed ; present participle & verbal noun Travailing
Definitions
  1. To labor with pain; to toil. Archaic "Slothful persons which will not travail for their livings." Latimer.
  2. To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.
Trav"ail transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To harass; to tire. Obs.
    As if all these troubles had not been sufficient to travail the realm, a great division fell among the nobility. Hayward.

Webster 1913