travail Definition
trav·ail (trə vāl′, trav′āl′)
noun
- very hard work; toil
- labor pains; pains of childbirth
- intense pain; agony
Etymology: OFr < VL *tripalium, instrument of torture composed of three stakes < LL tripalis, of three stakes < L tri-, tri- + palus, a stake: see pale
intransitive verb
- to work very hard; toil
- to have labor pains; suffer the pains of childbirth
Etymology: ME travaillen < OFr travaillier, to labor, toil < VL *tripaliare, to torment < *tripalium
travail Synonyms
travail Usage Examples
Adjective modifier
- sore: This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
- great: Those that have joined with their honor great travails, cares, or perils are less subject to envy.
- recent: For all its recent travails, it seems to still serve a purpose as a safe haven in a storm.
- long: At some time during that long travail - no-one knows quite when - he decided on a far more revolutionary plan.
- much: And so after much travail we come to Vote, Vote, Vote For Nigel Barton.
- own: Both families are too absorbed in their own travails to take much notice of the children.
Modifies a noun
sur: Un intérêt pour le développement social et le travail sur le terrain avec les plus pauvres et le monde rural.
Modifying Another Word
not: While the world around us perish, we do not travail.
Noun used with modifier
- son: Avant qu'il ( ne ) parte en vacances, il doit finir son travail.
- mon: Et des années plus tard, cela devait être aussi le point de départ de mon travail en physique théorique.
Preposition: in
- work: Surely right naught; and therefore I tell thee no more but those that fall unto thee if thou travail in this work.
- prayer: You know, I used to travail in prayer that God would show me His glory.
Preposition: of
- life: We are victorious when we don't allow the travails of life to get us down.
- soul: Let us rather seek to be poured forth as an offering, then to do much without feeling the least travail of soul.
- economy: Gradually, as Britain pulled through the travails of the post-war economy London rejuvenated.
- industry: It was reporting on the latest information concerning the travails of the railroad industry, as it tries to deliver on its promised targets.
Browse dictionary entries near travail
- ‹ traumatize
- ‹ traumatism
- ‹ trauma
- ‹ trattoria
- ‹ trass
- ‹ Trasimeno
- ‹ trashy
- ‹ trashing
- ‹ trash talk
- ‹ trash

