Sickness, disease, pestilence; an attack of illness, as swooning, the pains of childbirth, etc.

An intense spasm of pain experienced during labour; a uterine contraction; (also, in plural) the pain and effort of labour or childbirth. Also in…

labour pains.

The effort and pain of childbirth; labour. Frequently (and earliest) in in travail: in labour. Also figurative.

spec. In plural. Pains experienced during childbirth; labour pains. Scottish after Middle English.

Chiefly in plural. The physical suffering experienced when giving birth; labour.

The effort and pain of childbirth; labour. Frequently (and earliest) in in (or at) travailing: in labour. Cf. travail, n.1 2.

The pain of childbirth; (in plural) labour pains. Cf. throe, n. 1a. Obsolete.

The action of labour, v. (in various senses); esp. the action of doing hard (often unskilled) physical work. Also: an instance of this.

(usually in plural) a pain experienced during childbirth (also figurative); cf. travail pain n., labour pains n. at labour, n. compounds 2.

pain experienced during childbirth; (usually in plural) a pain of this type; cf. travail pang n., labour pains n. at labour, n. compounds 2.

pains experienced during childbirth.

In sense 1b, as in bearing pain, bearing time, etc. Now rare.

A woman's travail. (Also of an animal.) dialect or euphemistic.

In sense 4, frequently denoting the pain of childbirth, as birth pang, birth throe, etc. Often figurative or in figurative contexts.