travail
noun
painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil.
had been travailing
-
past perfect progressiveof travail.past perfect progressive
Used to describe an action that was ongoing continuously in the past up until another past event interrupted it.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
During the first six hundred years of the Christian era the woman had been "travailing" to bring forth a holy progeny.
From Notes on the Apocalypse by David Steele
But the hour for which the whole cosmos had been travailing in pain could not be indefinitely delayed.
From The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10 Drummond to Jowett, and General Index by Grenville Kleiser
