travails 1 of 2

noun

plural of travail
1
as in pains
a state of great suffering of body or mind no greater travail than that of parents who have suffered the death of a child

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2
as in efforts
very hard or unpleasant work these villagers now have decent housing, so our travail has not been in vain

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3
as in childbirths
the act or process of giving birth to children a midwife assisted her throughout her long travail

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travails

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of travail
as in struggles
to devote serious and sustained effort Labor Day is the day on which we recognize those men and women who daily travail with little appreciation or compensation

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of travails
Noun
In 2007, a mediator determined that despite fiscal travails, Vallejo couldn’t reduce the size of its fire department. — Jon Regardie, Los Angeles Times, 27 Oct. 2026 The enduring travails of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, landed cousins of the Montauketts in eastern Long Island, are instructive. — Jason Motlagh, Rolling Stone, 22 Oct. 2026 That’s because, despite his travails, Trump needs Wiles and almost everyone around him knows it. — Chris Whipple, Vanity Fair, 19 Oct. 2026 The comedy-drama will revisit the lives and travails of the eponymous sisters. — Stewart Clarke, Deadline, 14 Sep. 2026 What happens next at first feels like a dreadful narrative misstep, seemingly reinforcing the idea that cutting oneself off from others can save them from life’s travails. — Jay Weissberg, Variety, 7 Sep. 2026 The moment was loosely evocative of Clooney’s recent performance in Jay Kelly, a comedy-drama about the personal travails of a Clooney-esque movie star that culminates with the character receiving a lifetime honor at a swanky Italian film festival. — Chris Gardner, HollywoodReporter, 2 Sep. 2026 Given the travails of Bessent, its contents will make interesting reading. — John Cassidy, New Yorker, 24 Aug. 2026 That’s partly thanks to Holland, a smart, sensitive actor who, inside a stretchy suit or not, takes his character’s emotional travails just seriously enough. — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 28 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for travails
  1. pains
  2. efforts
  3. childbirths
  4. struggles
  5. distresses
  6. labors
  7. deliveries
  8. strives
Noun
  • The couple took pains to preserve historical details like the house's original wooden shutters.
    — Sophie Caldwell,Valentina Duarte, CNBC, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Nearly every single recipe from the Fizz’s golden age takes pains to specify that it should be made very cold, served without ice, and consumed immediately after delivery, an instruction that may seem pedantic but is nonetheless ubiquitous.
    — Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of pains
Noun
  • The Max 10's certification represents another milestone in Boeing's efforts to restore its reputation and financial footing after years of safety, quality and production challenges.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 21 Oct. 2026
  • But complicating the government's efforts to bring the French deficit under control are widespread protests that have turned increasingly violent since starting as a Parisian student movement last month.
    — Chloe Taylor, CNBC, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of efforts
Noun
  • The human neurons suffered severe, selective damage, mimicking the cellular breakdown that causes cerebral palsy in human infants during difficult childbirths.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Congo's has among the world's highest rates of both childbirths per woman and deaths around childbirth.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 Aug. 2026
Definition of childbirths
Verb
  • Sometimes, though, a team simply struggles to find its footing.
    — David Troy OutKick, FOXNews.com, 27 Oct. 2026
  • This mostly lifeless car struggles every few seconds to get its engine going.
    — Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of struggles
Noun
  • Pain, infection, medication side effects, and other physical and emotional distresses may be expressed through shouting, intimidating gestures, kicking, pushing, or punching.
    — Jordan Rau, NPR, 19 July 2026
Definition of distresses
Noun
  • There’s a slickness to the carnage that rubs uncomfortably against the film’s humanist ethos, rendering artificial (for all Shen Teng’s trembling and mouth-contorting labors) the horrific tragedies that befall its characters.
    — Beatrice Loayza, Variety, 13 Oct. 2026
  • In these labors, Carson is akin to two other recent laureates, Jon Fosse and László Krasznahorkai, our foremost writers of holy fools.
    — Merve Emre, New Yorker, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of labors
Noun
  • Late deliveries and bad ratings also declined, with workers who had more severe hearing loss benefiting the most.
    — Zoë Schiffer, semafor.com, 28 Oct. 2026
  • The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, which has been documenting the crisis for months, said there have been no food deliveries to the town since the end of May.
    — Yuliya Talmazan, NBC news, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of deliveries
Verb
  • In so doing, the tradition could achieve for ASL what the word of the year strives to achieve for English.
    — New York Times, New York Times, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Said soup is being attended to by at least four cooks, as Hal (with helpful coaching by an off-camera Kate) strives to explain himself to Grace back at the embassy, and then the two of them work to get Eidra on-side.
    — Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of strives

Browse Nearby Words

travailing
travails
travel
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Cite this Entry

“Travails.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/travails. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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