TRAVAIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does travail mean? 

• TRAVAIL (noun)
  The noun TRAVAIL has 2 senses:

1. concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child

2. use of physical or mental energy; hard work

  Familiarity information: TRAVAIL used as a noun is rare.

• TRAVAIL (verb)
  The verb TRAVAIL has 1 sense:

1. work hard

  Familiarity information: TRAVAIL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRAVAIL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

childbed; confinement; labor; labour; lying-in; parturiency; travail

Context example:

she was in labor for six hours

Hypernyms ("travail" is a kind of...):

birth; birthing; giving birth; parturition (the process of giving birth)

Meronyms (parts of "travail"):

uterine contraction (a rhythmic tightening in labor of the upper uterine musculature that contracts the size of the uterus and pushes the fetus toward the birth canal)

effacement (shortening of the uterine cervix and thinning of its walls as it is dilated during labor)

asynclitism; obliquity (the presentation during labor of the head of the fetus at an abnormal angle)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "travail"):

premature labor; premature labour (labor beginning prior to the 37th week of gestation)

Holonyms ("travail" is a part of...):

gestation; maternity; pregnancy (the state of being pregnant; the period from conception to birth when a woman carries a developing fetus in her uterus)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Use of physical or mental energy; hard work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

effort; elbow grease; exertion; sweat; travail

Context example:

they managed only with great exertion

Hypernyms ("travail" is a kind of...):

labor; labour; toil (productive work (especially physical work done for wages))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "travail"):

struggle (strenuous effort)

difficulty; trouble (an effort that is inconvenient)

least effort; least resistance (the least effortful way to do something)

strain; straining (an intense or violent exertion)

exercise; exercising; physical exercise; physical exertion; workout (the activity of exerting your muscles in various ways to keep fit)

pull (a sustained effort)

application; diligence (a diligent effort)

overkill (any effort that seems to go farther than would be necessary to achieve its goal)

supererogation (an effort above and beyond the call of duty)

overexertion (excessive exertion; so much exertion that discomfort or injury results)

detrition; friction; rubbing (effort expended in moving one object over another with pressure)

Derivation:

travail (work hard)

• TRAVAIL (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Work hard

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

dig; drudge; fag; grind; labor; labour; moil; toil; travail

Context example:

Lexicographers drudge all day long

Hypernyms (to "travail" is one way to...):

do work; work (be employed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

travail (use of physical or mental energy; hard work)

 Context examples 

For Johnson and Leach the travail of existence had ceased.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Precise analysis may be possible with a smartphone app. The test could overcome the clinical and logistical travails of other tests, including the need to transport samples and refrigerate them.

(Test for life-threatening nutrient deficit is made from bacteria entrails, National Science Foundation)

The dim forehead was crowned with a star; the lineaments below were seen as through the suffusion of vapour; the eyes shone dark and wild; the hair streamed shadowy, like a beamless cloud torn by storm or by electric travail.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the articulate travail of existence.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)