travail
painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil.
pain, anguish or suffering resulting from mental or physical hardship.
the pain of childbirth.
to suffer the pangs of childbirth; be in labor.
to toil or exert oneself.
Origin of travail
1Other words for travail
Words Nearby travail
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use travail in a sentence
Nothing symbolizes cryptocurrency’s troubles with regulators as well as the travails of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume.
The world’s biggest crypto exchange is running into trouble everywhere | Samanth Subramanian | June 28, 2021 | QuartzThat the show is able to weave these disparate story lines together as convincingly as it does is a testament to Matafeo’s irresistible invitation to empathize with the bittersweet travails of her character without a hint of self-pity.
Rom-com ‘Starstruck’ and coming-of-age comedy ‘We Are Lady Parts’ are this month’s hidden TV gems | Inkoo Kang | June 16, 2021 | Washington PostVoth worked a perfect ninth one game after closer Brad Hand blew his second save in three appearances and took his second loss over that span, prompting Martinez to issue unequivocal support for his bullpen despite recent travails.
A team meeting, Patrick Corbin’s strong start and Josh Bell’s blast lift Nats over Phillies | Gene Wang | May 13, 2021 | Washington PostOver the following weeks, the host used his perch on “Cuomo Prime Time” to deliver the headlines about the coronavirus, as well as to narrate his own travails with the disease.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo got special treatment from New York, confirming worst suspicions about media elites | Erik Wemple | March 25, 2021 | Washington PostThe sport, of course, has endured Woods’s sustained absences — first following leg surgery, then after his personal travails that led to his divorce, then with his back issues.
Golf faces a future without its irreplaceable face | Barry Svrluga | February 25, 2021 | Washington Post
He sat glum and thoughtful, his mind in unproductive travail, until the captain was announced.
St. Martin's Summer | Rafael SabatiniHow terrible that perpetual recommencement, that ocean bed, those Danaïdes-like clouds, all that travail and weariness for no end!
Toilers of the Sea | Victor HugoFrom the laborious travail of his brain issued at length an odd mass of arabesques with which the walls were somehow covered.
My nine weary months of arduous travail and half-frantic anticipation were cruelly wasted.
The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont | Louis de RougemontHe shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.
The Ordinance of Covenanting | John Cunningham
British Dictionary definitions for travail
/ (ˈtræveɪl) literary /
painful or excessive labour or exertion
the pangs of childbirth; labour
(intr) to suffer or labour painfully, esp in childbirth
Origin of travail
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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