travail
/tɹəˈveɪl/ noun, verb
Also a form of travel
Forms travails travaux travailing travailed travel travell
- noun (literary) Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.
- noun Specifically, the labor of childbirth.
- noun (obsolete, countable) An act of working; labor (US), labour (British).
- noun (obsolete) The eclipse of a celestial object.
- verb To toil.
- verb To go through the labor of childbirth.
Synonyms
toil tribulation ordeal parturiency labor labour confinement lying-in childbed effort elbow grease exertion sweat fag grind drudge dig moil
Antonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English travail, borrowed from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), deverbal from travailler, from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre (“to torment”), from Latin tripālium (“torture device”) + -āre (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of travel and travois.
From Middle English travailen, from Old French travailler, from the noun (see above). Doublet of travel. Displaced native Middle English swinken (“to work”) (from Old English swincan (“to labour, to toil, to work at”)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Labor with pain; severe toil or exertion.
- noun Parturition; labor; as, an easy travail.
- verb To labor with pain; to toil. [Archaic] "Slothful persons which will not travail for their livings." Latimer.
- verb To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.
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.]
Etymology [F. travailler, OF. traveillier, travaillier, to labor, toil, torment; cf. Pr. trebalhar to torment, agitate. See Travail, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “travail”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details