travail
noun
painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil.
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.
Unlike Alexander, the vice president’s travails are a result of his own doing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 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
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
You can be scared into saving by reading the travails of a person who has realized that they’ve been left behind with Social Security and little else.
From MarketWatch ● May 13, 2026
In a similar way, writers stop thinking—and thus stop writing— about tangible objects and instead refer to them by the role those objects play in their daily travails.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
