▪ I. ˈtravailing, vbl. n. arch.
[f. travail v. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. travail; labouring, toiling; labour of child-bearing; distress, fatigue, etc.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 3487 (Cott.) In trauelling [v.rr. trauayling, -alyng]..Ful herd it was þair moderpain. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 235 With techinge or with tilynge or trauaylynge of hondes. c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 402 He wiste not at sho was with childe to sho was evyn at travellyng. 1571 Digges Pantom. ii. vi. M iij b, No small ease and discharge of laborsom trauayling. 1859 J. Thomson Cast. Indol. i, Long years of restless travailing. |
▪ II. ˈtravailing, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That travails.
1. Labouring, toiling, hard-working. Obs. or arch.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter viii. 7 Þa ere trauailand men gastly in haly kirke. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 3 [To] put this travailland warld in pes and rest. 1579 Fenton Guicciard. (1618) 2 He was possessed with a mind trauelling, busie, & ambitious. |
2. Of a woman: Suffering the pains of child-birth; in labour. Also fig.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1225 A womman trauaillynge was hire biforn. 1535 Coverdale Isa. xlii. 14, I will crie like a trauelinge woman. 1641 Milton Reorfin. ii. Wks. 1851 III. 69 Let her cast her Abortive Spawne without the danger of this travailling and throbbing Kingdome. 1657 Trapp Comm. Esther vii. 8 The pains of a travelling woman. |
† 3. Tormenting, harassing. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xlviii. (Bodl. MS.), Þe same stone [jet] boþe blacke and ȝelow strengþeþ aȝens fantasies and aȝens..trauailinge fendes bi nyȝt. |