travail

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Physical travail being an inexhaustible source of black comedy and a recurring metaphor for the human condition in Beckett’s writing, the depiction of mortal decline is on point.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 9, 2024

I learned that Dressler’s success had come after decades of triumph and travail.

From New York Times • Mar. 15, 2024

Mulaney's second personal travail – which he does not address at all – was his highly publicized divorce from Anna-Marie Tendler and subsequent relationship with Olivia Munn with whom he had a child.

From Salon • May 3, 2023

Forty is a biblical number, used as shorthand for a long period of isolation and travail.

From Washington Post • Nov. 10, 2020

Yet bonds of friendship, colleagueship, and shared travail in the bomb project made it difficult for Lawrence to dismiss Oppenheimer’s disquiet entirely.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik