Definition of "travail" []

• Work, especially when arduous or involving painful effort; toil. See Synonyms at work. (noun)
• Tribulation or agony; anguish. (noun)
• The labor of childbirth. (noun)
• To work strenuously; toil. (verb-intransitive)
• To be in the labor of childbirth. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "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."
• "The word travel, you'll recall, is derived from the word travail, which itself is derived from a word for an instrument of torture."
• "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."