travail
part of speech
noun (travail, travails); verb (travail, travails, travailed, travailing — old)
meaning for a pupil
1) (formal, old) Travail is very hard, tiring work or effort. tree →
2) Travails (plural) are difficulties and troubles someone goes through: "the travails of moving house". tree →
3) (old, Bible) Travail can mean the pain and effort of giving birth: "a woman in travail". tree →
sense in the lessons
It appears in formal writing, old books and the King James Bible, and sometimes in news or humour about troubles ("the travails of the England team"). In French, "travail" is the ordinary word for "work", which is a false-friend trap. Phrases: "the travails of", "years of travail", "in travail" (old, giving birth).
examples
- After years of travail, they finished the cathedral. tree →
- The book describes the travails of a family crossing the ocean. tree →
- The team's travails continued with another defeat. tree →
- In the Bible, the woman was in travail before her child was born. tree →
- The farmers travailed in the fields from dawn to dusk. (old) tree →
- We laughed about the travails of our camping trip. tree →
- The travails of the journey made them tired but proud. tree →
note
Formal and old-fashioned. Pronounced "TRAV-ail" (rhymes with "gravel" plus "ale", stress on first syllable, often "truh-VAIL"). False friend: French "travail" just means "work" or "job". Do not confuse with "travel", though both come from the same old word.
In the corpora
- And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.
- Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child.
- For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
- Shall not pangs take hold of thee, as of a woman in travail?
- Behold, he travaileth with iniquity; yea, he conceiveth mischief, and bringeth forth falsehood.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «travail» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.