travail

IPA/ˈtræveɪl/
KK[trəvˈel]IPA/ˈtræveɪl/

travail — noun

1. a long and painful experience that demands an enormous amount of hard work, push

1.nounC1
Definition

a long and painful experience that demands an enormous amount of hard work, pushing the limits of both body and mind

Example

The family's financial travails finally ended when Imani found a steady job.

collocation: financial travails

Wren wrote about the travails of building a school in a remote village.

pattern: the travails of [something]

Common collocations
  • financial travail
  • years of travail
  • the travails of [something]
  • emotional travail
  • economic travail
Synonyms
  • hardship

    broader term; can describe any difficult condition, not necessarily involving active effort

  • struggle

    more common in everyday speech; emphasises the fight to overcome obstacles

  • ordeal

    focuses on the painful or testing nature of the experience

  • toil

    stresses the physical labour aspect more than the emotional pain

Antonyms
  • ease

    freedom from difficulty or effort

  • comfort

    a state of physical and emotional well-being, free from pain or worry

Grammar Patterns

the travails of [something]

Usage Note

Often appears in the plural form travails when referring to a series of difficult experiences. Less commonly used in everyday conversation than hardship or struggle.

Common Mistakes

I had a travail at work yesterday.
I went through a period of travail at work last year.
Travail describes a long, severe struggle, not a single minor difficulty.

2. the physical process of giving birth to a baby, from the start of contractions u

2.nounC2
Definition

the physical process of giving birth to a baby, from the start of contractions until delivery

Example

Rania's travail lasted twelve hours before her daughter was born.

In many cultures, women receive support from experienced midwives during their travail.

collocation: during travail

Common collocations
  • travail of childbirth
  • during travail
  • the pains of travail
Synonyms
  • labor

    the standard modern term; travail sounds more formal or literary

  • childbirth

    the general term covering the entire process of giving birth

  • delivery

    focuses specifically on the moment the baby is born

Usage Note

This sense is primarily used in historical, medical, or literary contexts. In modern everyday English, labor is the more common term for the childbirth process.

travail — verb

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words describe difficult experiences, but each highlights a different aspect. Hardship is the broadest term, covering any condition that makes life difficult, such as poverty or illness — you can say 'economic hardship' but not 'economic toil.' Struggle emphasises active resistance against obstacles, often with a fighting spirit ('his struggle with cancer'). Ordeal focuses on the painful, testing nature of an experience that one must endure ('the ordeal of a public trial'). Toil stresses prolonged physical or mental labour, often with an element of drudgery ('years of toil in the fields'). Travail combines the labour of toil with the suffering of an ordeal, making it the most intense of the four. A person might endure financial hardship, struggle to find work, and after years of toil, look back on the entire experience as a painful travail.

hardship ↗struggle ↗ordeal ↗toil ↗

Common collocations

Prepositions

  • travail of
  • through travail
  • during travail

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Travail entered English in the 13th century from Old French travail (suffering, painful effort), which came from the Latin tripalium, a three-staked instrument of torture. The metaphor of torture gradually softened to refer to any painful or difficult labour.

First known use

13th century

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a Verb