'Travail' definitions:
Definition of 'travail'
(from WordNet)
noun
Concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child; "she was in labor for six hours" [syn: parturiency, labor, labour, confinement, lying-in, travail, childbed]
noun
Use of physical or mental energy; hard work; "he got an A for effort"; "they managed only with great exertion" [syn: effort, elbow grease, exertion, travail, sweat]
verb
Definition of 'Travail'
From: GCIDE
- Travail \Trav"ail\, v. t. To harass; to tire. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
- As if all these troubles had not been sufficient to travail the realm, a great division fell among the nobility. --Hayward. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Travail'
From: GCIDE
- Travail \Trav"ail\ (?; 48), n. [F. travail; cf. Pr. trabalh, trebalh, toil, torment, torture; probably from LL. trepalium a place where criminals are tortured, instrument of torture. But the French word may be akin to L. trabs a beam, or have been influenced by a derivative from trabs (cf. Trave). Cf. Travel.]
- 1. Labor with pain; severe toil or exertion. [1913 Webster]
- As everything of price, so this doth require travail. --Hooker. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Parturition; labor; as, an easy travail. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Travail'
From: GCIDE
- Travail \Tra`vail"\, n. [Cf. F. travail, a frame for confining a horse, or OF. travail beam, and E. trave, n. Cf. Travail, v. i.] Same as Travois. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Definition of 'Travail'
From: GCIDE
- Travail \Trav"ail\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Travailed; p. pr. & vb. n. Travailing.] [F. travailler, OF. traveillier, travaillier, to labor, toil, torment; cf. Pr. trebalhar to torment, agitate. See Travail, n.]
- 1. To labor with pain; to toil. [Archaic] "Slothful persons which will not travail for their livings." --Latimer. [1913 Webster]
- 2. To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'travail'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- accouchement,
- be confined,
- bear,
- bear a child,
- bear young,
- birth,
- birth throes,
- birthing,
- blessed event,
- calve,
- cast,
- childbearing,
- childbed,
- childbirth,
- confinement,
- delivery,
- dig,
- dirty work,
- donkeywork,
- drop,
- drudge,
- drudgery,
- employment,
- fag,
- farrow,
- fatigue,
- fawn,
- foal,
- genesis,
- give birth,
- giving birth,
- grind,
- grub,
- hammer,
- hammer away,
- handiwork,
- handwork,
- hatching,
- have,
- have a baby,
- have young,
- having a baby,
- industry,
- kitten,
- labor,
- lamb,
- lick,
- lick of work,
- lie in,
- litter,
- manual labor,
- moil,
- multiparity,
- nascency,
- nativity,
- pains,
- parturition,
- peg,
- peg away,
- plod,
- plug,
- plug along,
- plug away,
- plugging,
- pound away,
- pup,
- rat race,
- scut work,
- slavery,
- slog,
- spadework,
- stroke,
- stroke of work,
- struggle,
- sweat,
- task,
- the Nativity,
- the stork,
- throw,
- tiresome work,
- toil,
- treadmill,
- wade through,
- whelp,
- work,
- work away,
- yean