travail
noun
painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil.
travailing
-
present participleof travail.present participle
A verb form that is used in progressive verb constructions and may also function as a modifier or a gerund.
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.
Our pains were not small or light, but travailing daily from chamber to chamber.
From Hampton Court by E. W. Haslehust
Why, we shall soon have you believing that only you in this groaning and travailing creation suffer.
From Fr?ulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther by Elizabeth von Arnim
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
At that very moment, Douglass, looking at a picture that should have logically thrilled him to the core, was travailing in a morose discontent quite incompatible with his environment.
From The Song of the Wolf by Frank Mayer
Willie’s travailing wife sends him again and again to bribe the witch, who refuses cup, steed, and girdle.
From Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Second Series by Frank Sidgwick
