travail

Meaning

Noun

1. (literary) Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.
2. Specifically, the labor of childbirth.
3. (countable, obsolete) An act of working; labor (US), labour (British).
4. (obsolete) The eclipse of a celestial object.
5. (alt-of, obsolete) Obsolete form of travel.
6. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of travois (“a kind of sled”)

Verb

1. To toil.
2. To go through the labor of childbirth.

Synonyms

labour

labor

toil

drudge

fag

exertion

parturiency

struggle

labour pain

work

moil

effort

elbow grease

childbed

grind

suffering

parturition

trouble

lying-in

dig

confinement

sweat

😓

throes

torment

vice

work hard

birth pangs

donkeywork

giving birth

nisus

childbirth

pain

pains of childbirth

obstetrical delivery

pains

agony

birth

birthing

burden

care

delivery

drudgery

encumbrance

endeavor

have a hard time of it

labor pains

onus

painful

ado

plodding

Translations

esforço

travaglio

peiner

تعب

labeur

sforzo

accouchement

Anstrengung

Plackerei

κόπος

esforç

Mühe

travail

fatica

effort

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tɹəˈveɪl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: travail

Inherited from Middle English: travailen

Cognate with Middle English: swinken

Cognate with Old English: swincan

In summary

PIE word
*tréyes
]
From Middle English travail, from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), deverbal of travailler, from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre, from Late Latin tripālium, from Latin tripālis (“held up by three stakes”) from Proto-Italic *trēs + *pākslos from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-. Doublet of travel.