travailing
travailing is the present participle and gerund of travail.
Meaning of travail
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
- 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
Noun
travailing (plural travailings)
- The process of undergoing travails or exertions.
- How universal, too, the restlessness, how deep the groanings and travailings of the human race.1850, James McCosh, The Method of the Divine Government
Forms of travailing
| plural | travailings |
|---|
Questions about travailing
- What does travailing mean?
- Travailing means the process of undergoing travails or exertions.
- What is travailing the present participle and gerund of?
- Travailing is the present participle and gerund of travail.
- What part of speech is travailing?
- Travailing is a noun.
- What is the plural of travailing?
- The plural of travailing is travailings.
Words near travailing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: travailing (page history and authors); 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.
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Cite this entry: “travailing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/travailing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.