travail

Syllables: tra·vail/tɹəˈveɪl/

travail noun: arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship. Also the obsolete form of travel.

Noun

travail (plural travails or travaux)

(literary) Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.
- Great trauail is created to al men, and an heauie yoke vpon the children of Adam, from the day of their comming forth of their mothers wombe, vntil the day of their burying, into the mother of al. […]1582 – 1610, Douay Rheims Bible, Book of Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Sirach) XL.1–11
- But as every thing of price, so this doth require travail.1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book V, §21
Synonyms:

toil, tribulation, ordeal

Antonyms:

ease, leisure
Specifically, the labor of childbirth.
- The lady shrieks and, well-a-near,
  Does fall in travail with her fear.c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry...
- And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first,1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 38:27–28
(countable, obsolete) An act of working; labor (US), labour (British).
(obsolete) The eclipse of a celestial object.

Verb

travail (third-person singular simple present travails, present participle travailing, simple past and past participle travailed)

To toil.
- [A]ll slothful persons, which will not travail for their livings, do the will of the devil.1552, Hugh Latimer, Fourth Sermon on the Lord's Prayer, Preached before Lady Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk
- The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 15:20
To go through the labor of childbirth.
- A woman when she traveyleth hath sorowe, be cause her houre is come: but as sone as she is delivered off her chylde she remembreth no moare her anguysshe, for ioye that a man is borne in to the worlde.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John
- And they iourneyed from Bethel: and there was but a litle way to come to Ephrath; and Rachel traueiled, and she had hard labour.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 35:16

Also used as

travail is also the obsolete form of travel.

travail is also the alternative form of travois.

travail meaning in Arabic

travail in Arabic

labor of childbirth: مَخَاض maḵāḍ

Examples of travail in a sentence

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:
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:
Other poet travailing in this plain high-way of paſtoral know I none.1714, J[ohn] Gay, “The Proeme to the Courteous Reader”, in The Shepherd’s Week. In Six Pastorals, London: […] R. Burleigh […], →OCLC:

All 14 example sentences with travail

Synonyms of travail

Antonyms

ease
leisure

All synonyms and antonyms of travail

Forms of travail

Noun
plural	travails
plural	travaux
alternative form (obsolete)	travel
alternative form (obsolete)	travell
Verb
third-person singular present	travails
present participle	travailing
past participle	travailed
past	travailed

Plural of travail: travails or travaux

Origin of travail

Inherited from Middle English travail, borrowed from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), deverbal from travailler, from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre (“to torment”), from Latin tripālium (“torture device”) + -āre (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of travel and travois.

From Middle English travailen, from Old French travailler, from the noun (see above). Doublet of travel. Displaced native Middle English swinken (“to work”) (from Old English swincan (“to labour, to toil, to work at”)).

Words formed from travail

Words that rhyme with travail

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about travail

What does travail mean?: Travail means arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship.
What is travail in Arabic?: Travail in Arabic is مَخَاض (maḵāḍ). See Travail meaning in Arabic.
How do you use travail in a sentence?: 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!
What part of speech is travail?: Travail can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce travail?: Travail is pronounced /tɹəˈveɪl/.
What is the plural of travail?: The plural of travail is travails.

Words near travail in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: travail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-travail.wav.

Cite this entry: “travail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/travail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.