travail
1 of 2noun
travail
2 of 2verb
intransitive verb
Did you know?
Etymologists are pretty certain that travail comes from trepalium, the Late Latin name of an instrument of torture. We don't know exactly what a trepalium looked like, but the word's history gives us an idea. Trepalium is derived from the Latin tripalis, which means "having three stakes" (from tri-, meaning "three," and palus, meaning "stake"). From trepalium sprang the Anglo-French verb travailler, which originally meant "to torment" but eventually acquired the milder senses "to trouble" and "to journey." The Anglo-French noun travail was borrowed into English in the 13th century, along with another descendant of travailler, travel.
Synonyms
Noun
- affliction
- agony
- anguish
- distress
- excruciation
- hurt
- misery
- pain
- rack
- strait(s)
- torment
- torture
- tribulation
- woe
Verb
- bang away
- beaver (away)
- dig (away)
- drudge
- endeavor
- fag
- grub
- hump
- hustle
- labor
- moil
- peg (away)
- plod
- plow
- plug
- slave
- slog
- strain
- strive
- struggle
- sweat
- toil
- tug
- work
Example Sentences
Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 17 May 2022 Cognates are words that are related etymologically, as travail and travel are … at least historically. James Harbeck, The Week, 23 Feb. 2022 But over time, travel and travail split into two different words. James Harbeck, The Week, 23 Feb. 2022 Steinbeck follows their trek through the travail and injustice that accompanied every step of their journey. Steve West, sun-sentinel.com, 3 June 2021 Who will miss the slaughterhouses, with their groan of travail that was never easy to bear in any age? Matthew Scully, National Review, 17 Jan. 2021 Forty is a biblical number, used as shorthand for a long period of isolation and travail. Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 12 Nov. 2020 Douglas and Paula Rigby inevitably find no easy answers to their financial travails and everyday ennui. oregonlive, 20 Mar. 2020 Luxe Antarctica: Modern-day Antarctic polar explorers don’t have to endure the harrowing travails of British pioneer Ernest Shackleton. Michael George, National Geographic, 15 Oct. 2019 See More Word History
Noun
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from travailler to torment, labor, journey, from Vulgar Latin *trepaliare to torture, from Late Latin trepalium instrument of torture, from Latin tripalis having three stakes, from tri- + palus stake — more at pole
Noun
13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Verb
13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Medical Definition
travail
noun
ˈtrav-ˌāl travailing
verb
Synonyms & Similar Words
- laboring
- struggling
- working
- striving
- toiling
- tugging
- sweating
- drudging
- trying
- humping
- moiling
- plowing
- plodding
- slogging
- hustling
- slaving
- straining
- endeavoring
- banging away
- plugging
- grubbing
- fagging
- driving
- digging (away)
- sweating blood
- pegging (away)
- attacking
- scratching
- trudging
- beavering (away)
- exercising
- digging in
- exerting
- pitching in
- wading
- scrabbling
- overexerting
- essaying
- applying (oneself)
- knuckling down
- eking out
- hammering (away)
- buckling (down)
- putting out
- overworking
- grinding (out)
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- breaking
- idling
- resting
- slackening
- hanging (around or out)
- lounging
- easing (up)
- chilling
- bumming
- relaxing
- letting up
- loafing
- playing
- hanging
- unwinding
- hacking (around)
- lazing
- reposing
- shirking
- basking
- lolling
- goofing (off)
- slacking (off)
- dallying
- footling
- trifling
- dabbling
- doodling
- vegging out
- dillydallying
- hanging about
- fooling around
- puttering (around)
- goldbricking
- monkeying (around)
- goofing (around)
- pottering (around)
- fribbling
- messing around
