travail

travail
/treuh vayl", trav"ayl/, n.
1. painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil.
2. pain, anguish or suffering resulting from mental or physical hardship.
3. the pain of childbirth.
v.i.
4. to suffer the pangs of childbirth; be in labor.
5. to toil or exert oneself.
[1200-50; (v.) ME travaillen < OF travaillier to torment < VL *trepaliare to torture, deriv. of LL trepalium torture chamber, lit., instrument of torture made with three stakes (see TRI-, PALE2); (n.) ME < OF: suffering, deriv. of travailler]
Syn. 1. labor, moil. 2. torment, agony.

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  • TRAVAIL — ON en a fait maintes fois la remarque: l’apparition du mot «travail» est relativement récente. Cela ne signifie certes pas que la réalité désignée par ce mot le soit également, ni qu’il existât jamais de sociétés se livrant à la complète oisiveté …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • travail — TRAVAIL. s. m. Labeur, peine, fatigue, soit du corps, soit de l esprit, qu on prend pour faire quelque chose. Grand, long, penible travail. se mettre au travail. quitter le travail. aimer le travail. se plaire au travail. fuïr le travail. endurer …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • travail — Travail, Opera, Labor, ou Traveil, est enim qui putet ductum a Transuigilare, id est, Peruigilare. Car traveiller, est diligentem operam alicui rei impendere, quod non fit sine fatigatione. Martialis: Nam vigilare leue est, peruigilare graue. La… …   Thresor de la langue françoyse

  • Travail — Trav ail (?; 48), n. [F. travail; cf. Pr. trabalh, trebalh, toil, torment, torture; probably from LL. trepalium a place where criminals are tortured, instrument of torture. But the French word may be akin to L. trabs a beam, or have been… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Travail — Tra vail , n. [Cf. F. travail, a frame for confining a horse, or OF. travail beam, and E. trave, n. Cf. {Travail}, v. i.] Same as {Travois}. [Webster 1913 Suppl.] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Travail — Trav ail, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Travailed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Travailing}.] [F. travailler, OF. traveillier, travaillier, to labor, toil, torment; cf. Pr. trebalhar to torment, agitate. See {Travail}, n.] 1. To labor with pain; to toil. [Archaic]… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Travail — Trav ail, v. t. To harass; to tire. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] As if all these troubles had not been sufficient to travail the realm, a great division fell among the nobility. Hayward. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • travail — (n.) labor, toil, mid 13c., from O.Fr. travail suffering or painful effort, trouble (12c.), from travailler to toil, labor, originally to trouble, torture, from V.L. *tripaliare to torture, from *tripalium (in L.L. trepalium) instrument of… …   Etymology dictionary

  • travail — index disaster, effort, endeavor, hardship, labor, strive Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • travail — *labor, *work, toil, drudgery, grind Analogous words: *effort, exertion, pains, trouble …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • travail — literary ► NOUN (also travails) 1) painful or laborious effort. 2) labour pains. ► VERB ▪ undergo such effort. ORIGIN Old French, from Latin trepalium instrument of torture …   English terms dictionary

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