travail
travail (trə-vālʹ, trăvʹāl) noun
1. Work, especially when arduous or involving painful effort; toil. See synonyms at work.
2. Tribulation or agony; anguish.
3. The labor of childbirth.
verb, intransitive
travailed, travailing, travails
1. To work strenuously; toil.
2. To be in the labor of childbirth.
[Middle English, from Old French, from travailler, to work hard, from Vulgar Latin *tripāliāre, to torture with a tripalium, from Late Latin tripālium, instrument of torture, probably from Latin tripālis, having three stakes : tri-, tri- + pālus, stake.]