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.

As everything of price, so this doth require travail.
Hooker.

2.

Parturition; labor; as, an easy travail.

 

© Webster 1913


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.

2.

To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.

 

© Webster 1913


Trav"ail, v. t.

To harass; to tire. [Obs.]

As if all these troubles had not been sufficient to travail the realm, a great division fell among the nobility.
Hayward.

 

© Webster 1913


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

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