travail
Americannoun
-
travails
plural
verb (used without object)
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travails,
present (3rd person singular)
-
travailed,
past participle, past
-
travailing
present participle
-
to suffer the pangs of childbirth; be in labor.
-
to toil or exert oneself.
noun
-
painful or excessive labour or exertion
-
the pangs of childbirth; labour
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
travailsimple
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travailssimple
-
have travailedperfect
-
has travailedperfect
-
am travailingprogressive
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are travailingprogressive
-
is travailingprogressive
-
have been travailingperfect progressive
-
has been travailingperfect progressive
Past
-
travailedsimple
-
had travailedperfect
-
was travailingprogressive
-
were travailingprogressive
-
had been travailingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of travail
1200–50; (v.) Middle English travaillen < Old French travaillier to torment < Vulgar Latin *trepaliāre to torture, derivative of Late Latin trepālium torture chamber, literally, instrument of torture made with three stakes ( see tri-, pale 2); (noun) Middle English < Old French: suffering, derivative of travailler
Explanation
If you’ve had to bust your behind, burn the midnight oil, and shed blood, sweat, and tears to get where you are today, you could say you’ve endured significant travail. In other words, back-breakingly hard mental exertion or physical labor. Travail comes to us from a sinister Latin word: trepalium, meaning “instrument of torture.” The closest English word is probably toil, though travail means you’re not just exerting monumental effort but suffering as you do so. If your life has been hard-knock enough to be the stuff of old blues songs or Shakespearean tragedies, you’ve had your share of travails. In French, incidentally, travail simply means "work." The Spanish trabajo, "work," is closely related.
Vocabulary lists containing travail
"The Odyssey," Vocabulary from Part 1 of the epic poem
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
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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.
See Examples For:
The author of the novel “Good Company” on tales of travail from Edith Wharton, Elena Ferrante and others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Physical travail being an inexhaustible source of black comedy and a recurring metaphor for the human condition in Beckett’s writing, the depiction of mortal decline is on point.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2024
Mulaney's second personal travail – which he does not address at all – was his highly publicized divorce from Anna-Marie Tendler and subsequent relationship with Olivia Munn with whom he had a child.
From Salon ● May 3, 2023
He has already endured five decades of political travail and far worse from life.
From New York Times ● Jan. 28, 2020
When I came to my cabin after trying to help Charley in his travail, Robbie was tying a trouble light to the iron frame of my sad bed.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
At one moment, he shares a wild story about the near-mortal travails of sharing a house with Iggy Pop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026
That and oil price buoyancy pushed the peso up 10% against the dollar this year despite budgetary travails.
From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026
Yet I’ve been optimistic amid our industry’s stresses and travails.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Over the last month while in hospice, Frank did a number of interviews with US media, commenting on his life's work, the current political mood and the travails of the left.
From BBC ● May 20, 2026
So doth Christ in His mercy often supply courage and industry equal to adversity, that His creations might meet their travails.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
English translations of the Bible often use it in this context, such as in Isaiah 66:7: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.”
From Washington Post ● Oct. 10, 2020
It be like knowing you are what praying women had in mind when they travailed for tomorrow.
From "Watch Us Rise" by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan
Of all princes in Europe the emperor hath travailed most in the cause of religion, yet, haply by some secret judgment of God, he hath not obtained the end.
From The Reign of Mary Tudor by Ernest Rhys
The priest having read the text as chance might lead him, read the vespers for Sunday;—and you must know he travailed hard, that the offerings should be worth something to him.
From Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers by William Alexander Clouston
Do it not, I beseech thee, by Pelops thy grandsire, and Atreus thy father, and this my mother, who travailed in childbirth of me, and now travaileth again in her sorrow.
From Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred John Church
Both are directly hastening the emergence of the spiritual World Order stirring in the womb of a travailing age.
From Messages to America by Shoghi Effendi
“Within the tree the gravid womb swell'd large, “Stretch'd was the mother with the load, but mute “Were all her woes; nor in travailing voice “Lucina could she call.
From The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II by J. J. Howard
Like physical birth, spiritual regeneration is preceded by travailing, i.e. fear and painful contrition.
From Grace, Actual and Habitual A Dogmatic Treatise by Arthur Preuss
There is a pause in the hurry, in the sorrow, of this travailing world; there is a hush.
From The Near East Dalmatia, Greece and Constantinople by Robert (Robert Smythe) Hichens
It was truly a marvellous spectacle to see this giant savage, travailing in the throes of a new birth.
From The Frontiersman A Tale of the Yukon by H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody
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