travail
noun
painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil.
had travailed
-
past perfectof travail.past perfect
Used to express a completed action that took place before another specific past action occurred.
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.
She waved not a hand, fluttered no kerchief of farewell, only stood sadly watching the sons with whom she had travailed, like one who watches the dear dead borne to their last resting-place.
From The Black Douglas by Frank Richards
He was filled with a pitying, passionate adoration of this beloved creature who had travailed and been impregnated with the suffering of the soul.
From Jean-Christophe Journey's End by Gilbert Cannan
Kondwana, and Senzanga had travailed heavily since we left them on the night after the slaughter, in the elephant-pit on the northern bank of the Limpopo.
From Kafir Stories Seven Short Stories by W. C. (William Charles) Scully
She, too, sprung up, as if with the intention of throwing herself on the neck of her son, for whom she had travailed and sorrowed.
From The Surgeon's Daughter by Sir Walter Scott
I wot not of the tribe wherefrom can come So fell a legion, nor in what land Earth Could rear, unharmed, such creatures, nor avow That she had travailed and brought forth death.
From The House of Atreus by E. D. A. (Edmund Doidge Anderson) Morshead
