travail

[truh-veyl, trav-eyl] /trəˈveɪl, ˈtræv eɪl/
noun
1.
painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil.
2.
pain, anguish or suffering resulting from mental or physical hardship.
3.
the pain of childbirth.
verb (used without object)
4.
to suffer the pangs of childbirth; be in labor.
5.
to toil or exert oneself.
Origin
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-, pale2); (noun) Middle English < Old French: suffering, derivative of travailler
Synonyms
1. labor, moil. 2. torment, agony.
Examples from the web for travail
  • In these and many other respects, travel has resumed its ancient meaning, of travail.
  • Dogs, anchored in the present, know no such travail.
  • Students are smart enough to see the pressures under which their faculty mentors travail.
  • If there is one thing the long travail of the last four presidencies has taught us, it is to be skeptical of the easy answer.
  • At length, after much travail and these debates, all things were got ready and provided.
  • Mark now what profit they took of this one occasion through diligence and earnest travail.
British Dictionary definitions for travail

travail

/ˈtræveɪl/
noun
1.
painful or excessive labour or exertion
2.
the pangs of childbirth; labour
verb
3.
(intransitive) to suffer or labour painfully, esp in childbirth
Word Origin
C13: from Old French travaillier, from Vulgar Latin tripaliāre (unattested) to torture, from Late Latin trepālium instrument of torture, from Latin tripālis having three stakes, from trēs three + pālus stake
Word Origin and History for travail
n.

"labor, toil," mid-13c., from Old French travail "suffering or painful effort, trouble" (12c.), from travailler "to toil, labor," originally "to trouble, torture," from Vulgar Latin *tripaliare "to torture," from *tripalium (in Late Latin trepalium) "instrument of torture," probably from Latin tripalis "having three stakes" (from tria, tres "three" + palus "stake"), which sounds ominous, but the exact notion is obscure. The verb is recorded from late 13c.