Travail

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [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]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [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.]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [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]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [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]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  travail
       n 1: concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of labor to
            the birth of a child; "she was in labor for six hours"
            [syn: {parturiency}, {labor}, {labour}, {confinement}, {lying-in},
             {childbed}]
       2: 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}, {sweat}]
       v : work hard; "She was digging away at her math homework";
           "Lexicographers drudge all day long" [syn: {labor}, {labour},
            {toil}, {fag}, {grind}, {drudge}, {dig}, {moil}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  87 Moby Thesaurus words for "travail":
     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
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  TRAVAIL. The act of child-bearing. 
       2. A woman is said to be in her travail from the time the pains of 
  child-bearing commence until her delivery. 5 Pick. 63; 6 Greenl. R. 460. 
       3. In some states, to render the mother of a bastard child a competent 
  witness in the prosecution of the alleged father, she must have accused him 
  of being the father during the time of her travail. 2 Root, R. 490; 1 Root, 
  R. 107; 2 Mass. R. 443; 5 Mass. R. 518; 8 Greenl. R. 163; 3 N. H. Rep. 135; 
  6 Greenl. R. 460. But in Connecticut, when the state prosecutes, the mother 
  is competent, although she did not accuse the father during her travail. 1 
  Day, R. 278.