31 May 2018
travail
[truh-veyl, trav-eyl]
noun
1. painfully difficult or burdensome work; toil.
2. pain, anguish or suffering resulting from mental or physical hardship.
3. the pain of childbirth.
verb (used without object)
4. to suffer the pangs of childbirth; be in labor.
5. to toil or exert oneself.
Origin of travail
Middle English, Old French, Late Latin
1200-1250; (v.) Middle English travaillen < Old French travaillier to torment < Vulgar Latin *trepaliāre to torture, derivative of Late Latin trepālium torture chamber, literally, instrument of torture made with three stakes (see tri-, pale2); (noun) Middle English < Old French: suffering, derivative of travailler
Synonyms
1. labor, moil. 2. torment, agony.
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for travail
Historical Examples
As he drove he mused over what travail would say when he saw these shells.
Made in Tanganyika
Carl Richard Jacobi
But it could be that travail knew of the value of Sutter’s shell collection.
Made in Tanganyika
Carl Richard Jacobi
“I was looking for my tobacco pouch,” travail replied easily.
Made in Tanganyika
Carl Richard Jacobi
Anagram
larva it
vial art
Today’s quote
I’ve left specific instructions that I do not want to be brought back during a Republican administration.
– Timothy Leary
On this day
31 May 1921 – 1 June 1921 – The Tulsa Race Riots in which a large group of white people attacked the black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, including aerial attacks that dropped bombs and fired on the community. It resulted in the Greenwood District, also known as the ‘Black Wall Street’ being burned to the ground. The Greenwood District was the wealthiest black community in the USA at the time.More than 800 people were admitted to white hospitals after two hospitals in the black community were burned down. Police arrested or detained more than 6,000 black residents. More than 10,000 were left homeless and 35 city blocks comprising of 1,256 destroyed. Official figures state that 39 people were killed, however, other sources estimate that between 55 and 300 black residents were killed with 9 white people killed. The riots were precipitated when a black man was suspected of raping a white girl in an elevator. White residents gathered with rumours of a lynching to happen. As the whites descended on Greenwood, a group of black men assembled to confront them. During this, some of the whites began torching buildings
31 May 1930 – birth of Clint Eastwood, American actor, director, producer and politician.
31 May 1948 – birth of John Bonham, Led Zeppelin drummer. Died 25 September 1980.
31 May 1965 – birth of Brooke Shields, American actor, model and producer.
31 May 1996 – death of Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author. Leary was a major proponent of the use of pscyhedelic drugs, particularly LSD and psilocybin (mushrooms). He conducted numerous psychiatric experiments using psychedelics, particularly during the 1950s and and 1960s, when the drugs were legal. LSD was banned by the USA in 1966. Leary popularised 1960’s catch-phrases such as ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’, ‘set and setting’, and ‘think for yourself and question authority’. He was friends with beat generation poets, such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Leary was arrested numerous times over his possession and use of drugs. He wrote a number of books on the benefits of psychedelic drugs. Leary became fascinated with computers, declaring that ‘the PC is the LSD of the 1990s’. He encouraged bohemians to ‘turn on, boot up, jack in’. Leary was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995. He chose to stream his dying moments over the internet. Seven grams of Leary’s ashes were placed aboard a Pegasus rocket, launched on 21 April 1997. It remained in orbit around the Earth for six years until it burned up in atmosphere. Born 22 October 1920.