Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use travail in a sentence

14 example sentences · noun, verb

Travail means arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship. Example: “This litany of travails is soul-crushing.”

Examples of travail by meaning

nounArduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.

  • But I know that to-day there are great questions calling for an answer, wrongs clamoring to be righted, a people in travail that pleads for ease!1919, Stanley J. Weyman, “XIII Peter Pauper”, in The Great House
  • He had thought of making a destiny for himself, through laborious and untiring travail.1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 38
  • And the British mandarin Left, like their contemporaries in the Foreign Office, had little time for the travails of the small countries between Germany and Russia, whom they had always regarded as something of a nuisance.2005, Tony Judt, “Culture Wars”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN

More sentences with travail

  • This litany of travails is soul-crushing.From the entry soul-crushing
  • Le travail de deuil, est-ce un travail, une espèce de travail?1986 [1974], Jacques Derrida, translated by John P. Leavey, Jr. and Richard Rand, Glas, Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press…. From the entry thanatopraxis
  • Ruth, who in his mental travail has conducted himself like a real trouper.1933 August 13, Pittsburgh Press, page 29. From the entry trouper
  • What strength conceives a more emblazoned portal Around this travailing earth, around her courses mortal!1908, David Chalmers Nimmo, “Night”, in Songs, page 80. From the entry emblazoned
  • A no-holds-barred, gritty – albeit often comic – portrait of the travails of a disparate group of misfits navigating Edinburgh’s dark, drug-riddled underbelly.2023 July 2, David Barnett, “‘Choose drugs?’ 30 years after he wrote Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh says life is tougher now”, in The…. From the entry no-holds-barred
  • The dandle-board of Nigeria’s history has thrust the oligarchs upward; rendered insensate to citizenry travails, they render millions destitute, humiliated and bereft of hope.2020 February 6, Olatunji Ololade, “This toxic underside”, in The Nation Newspaper. From the entry dandle board
  • Lila Ray’s second collection from this publisher (whose flexiback editions are exceptionally beautiful productions) may be described as poetry of spiritual travail.1977, Orbis. From the entry flexiback
  • There is something about the mere sight of this number-nine-size-hatted man that seldom fails to jerk the beholder from despondency’s depths in times of travail.1946, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 25, in Joy in the Morning, Random House, published 2009. From the entry hatted
  • Volkswagen’s travails are symbolic of the nation’s overall economic malaise and a political crisis that collapsed the government in December, paving the way for early elections Feb. 23.2025 January 27, Lenora Chu, “How Volkswagen slid from German engineering icon to innovation laggard”, in The Christian Science Monitor. From the entry malaise
  • My leg aches with each step I take toward the elevator; the army of Alice-in-Wonderlands that once travailed the hallways of the hospital are now clad in summer-yellow scrubs.2012, Juan Aguilera, Diego Pardo, M.D.: And the Darkness Within Diego Pardo, M.D.: And the Darkness Within, page 22. From the entry Alice-in-Wonderland
  • How unseasonably and unkindly it is, to interturb the State and Church with their Amalekitish onsets, when they are in their extreme pangs of travail with their lives.1968, Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. From the entry interturb

Meaning of travail

  1. noun Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.
  2. noun Specifically, the labor of childbirth.
  3. noun An act of working; labor (US), labour (British).

Full definition of travail

Questions about travail in a sentence

How do you use travail in a sentence?
Travail is used as a noun and verb. For example: “This litany of travails is soul-crushing.”
What is a short sentence with travail?
“This litany of travails is soul-crushing.”
What does travail mean?
Travail means arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: travail (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use travail in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/travail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.