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View synonyms for travail
travail
[ truh-veyl, trav-eyl ]
travail
/ ˈtræveɪl /
noun
- painful or excessive labour or exertion
- the pangs of childbirth; labour
verb
- intr to suffer or labour painfully, esp in childbirth
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Word History and Origins
Origin of travail1
1200–50; (v.) Middle English travaillen < Old French travaillier to torment < Vulgar Latin *trepaliāre to torture, derivative of Late Latin trepālium torture chamber, literally, instrument of torture made with three stakes ( tri-, pale 2 ); (noun) Middle English < Old French: suffering, derivative of travailler
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Word History and Origins
Origin of travail1
C13: from Old French travaillier , from Vulgar Latin tripaliāre (unattested) to torture, from Late Latin trepālium instrument of torture, from Latin tripālis having three stakes, from trēs three + pālus stake
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Example Sentences
He sat glum and thoughtful, his mind in unproductive travail, until the captain was announced.
From Project Gutenberg
How terrible that perpetual recommencement, that ocean bed, those Danaïdes-like clouds, all that travail and weariness for no end!
From Project Gutenberg
From the laborious travail of his brain issued at length an odd mass of arabesques with which the walls were somehow covered.
From Project Gutenberg
My nine weary months of arduous travail and half-frantic anticipation were cruelly wasted.
From Project Gutenberg
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.
From Project Gutenberg
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