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travail - 8 dictionary results

tra⋅vail

[truh-veyl, trav-eyl]
–noun
1. painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil.
2. pain, anguish or suffering resulting from mental or physical hardship.
3. the pain of childbirth.
–verb (used without object)
4. to suffer the pangs of childbirth; be in labor.
5. to toil or exert oneself.

Origin:
1200–50; (v.) ME travaillen < OF travaillier to torment < VL *trepaliāre to torture, deriv. of LL trepālium torture chamber, lit., instrument of torture made with three stakes (see tri-, pale 2 ); (n.) ME < OF: suffering, deriv. of travailler


1. labor, moil. 2. torment, agony.
tra·vail   (trə-vāl', trāv'āl')   
n.  
  1. Work, especially when arduous or involving painful effort; toil. See Synonyms at work.
  2. Tribulation or agony; anguish.
  3. The labor of childbirth.
intr.v.   tra·vailed, tra·vail·ing, tra·vails
  1. To work strenuously; toil.
  2. To be in the labor of childbirth.

[Middle English, from Old French, from travailler, to work hard, from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre, to torture with a tripalium, from Late Latin tripālium, instrument of torture, probably from Latin tripālis, having three stakes : tri-, tri- + pālus, stake; see pag- in Indo-European roots.]

Travail

Tra`vail"\, n. [Cf. F. travail, a frame for confining a horse, or OF. travail beam, and E. trave, n. Cf. Travail, v. i.] Same as Travois.

Travail

Trav"ail\ (?; 48), n. [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.]

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.

Travail

Trav"ail\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Travailed; p. pr. & vb. n. Travailing.] [F. travailler, OF. traveillier, travaillier, to labor, toil, torment; cf. Pr. trebalhar to torment, agitate. See Travail, n.]

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.

Travail

Trav"ail\, v. t. 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.
Language Translation for : travail
Spanish: manualidades, trabajos manuales,
German: die Handarbeit,
Japanese: 手工品

travail  (n.)
"labor, toil," c.1250, from O.Fr. travail "suffering or painful effort, trouble" (12c.), from travailler "to toil, labor," originally "to trouble, torture," from V.L. *tripaliare "to torture," from *tripalium (in L.L. trepalium) "instrument of torture," probably from L. tripalis "having three stakes" (from tria, tres "three" + palus "stake"), which sounds ominous, but the exact notion is obscure. The verb is recorded from c.1300.

Main Entry: tra·vail
Pronunciation: tr&-'vA(&)l, 'trav-"Al
Function: noun
: LABOR, PARTURITION
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