travail

IPA: trʌvˈeɪɫ

(literary) Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.
Specifically, the labor of childbirth.
(obsolete, countable) An act of working; labor (US), labour (British).
(obsolete) The eclipse of a celestial object.
Obsolete form of travel. [The act of traveling; passage from place to place.]
Alternative form of travois (“a kind of sled”) [(originally and chiefly Canada, US, historical) A frame, often consisting of two poles tied together at one end to form a V-shaped structure with the vertex attached to a dog, horse, etc., or held by a person and the other ends touching the ground, which was used by indigenous peoples (notably the Plains Aboriginals of North America) to drag loads over land.]

Examples of "travail" in Sentences

Each morn that dawns I wake in travail and in woe,
So he said to himself, By Allah, all my travail is lost!
The great travail is over, my friends, and I am back on top of my game.
Chaldees, when they come on thee suddenly, as pangs on a woman in travail (Jer 6: 24)!
The word travel, you'll recall, is derived from the word travail, which itself is derived from a word for an instrument of torture.
Present receivings and comforts are consistent with a great many groans; not as the pangs of one dying, but as the throes of a woman in travail -- groans that are symptoms of life, not of death.
It is an allusion to a woman in travail, that is pained to be delivered, and welcomes her pains, because they hasten the birth of the child, and wishes them sharp and strong, that the work may be cut short.
Thus he illustrates by a similitude taken from a woman in travail, to whose sorrows he compares those of his disciples, for their encouragement; for it is the will of Christ that his people should be a comforted people.
And if thou beest _in travail_, and punishest thy body reasonably and wisely, by wakings, fastings, and in prayers and meditations, and sufferest heat and cold, hunger and thirst, privation and anguish for the love of JESUS Christ; for this travail thou shalt come to rest that lasts aye, and sit on a settle of joy with angels.