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Travail traces back to trepalium, a Late Latin word for an instrument of torture. We don't know exactly what a trepalium looked like, but the word's history gives us an idea. Trepalium comes from the Latin adjective tripalis, which means "having three stakes" (from tri-, meaning "three," and palus, meaning "stake"). Trepalium eventually led to the Anglo-French verb travailler, meaning "to torment" but also, more mildly, "to trouble" and "to journey." The Anglo-French noun travail was borrowed into English in the 13th century, along with another descendant of travailler, travel.
Examples of travail in a Sentence
Chicago Tribune, 19 May 2025
The travails of Boeing, the Jeju Air crash in South Korea last year and a cluster of crashes and emergencies in North America have also kept Mr. Chokshi and his colleagues busy.
—Terence McGinley, New York Times, 18 May 2025
With confidence gained, even with the final travails.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 14 May 2025
Other French politicians – including on the left – have had their political ambitions dashed by legal travails.
—Christian Edwards, CNN Money, 5 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for travail
Cite this Entry
“Travail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/travail. Accessed 3 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
travail
noun
ˈtrav-ˌāl
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