The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Travail \Tra`vail"\, n. [Cf. F. travail, a frame for confining a
   horse, or OF. travail beam, and E. trave, n. Cf. Travail,
   v. i.]
   Same as Travois.
   [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Travail \Trav"ail\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Travailed; p. pr. &
   vb. n. Travailing.] [F. travailler, OF. traveillier,
   travaillier, to labor, toil, torment; cf. Pr. trebalhar to
   torment, agitate. See Travail, n.]
   1. To labor with pain; to toil. [Archaic] "Slothful persons
      which will not travail for their livings." --Latimer.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Travail \Trav"ail\, v. t.
   To harass; to tire. [Obs.]
   [1913 Webster]

         As if all these troubles had not been sufficient to
         travail the realm, a great division fell among the
         nobility.                                --Hayward.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Travail \Trav"ail\ (?; 48), n. [F. travail; cf. Pr. trabalh,
   trebalh, toil, torment, torture; probably from LL. trepalium
   a place where criminals are tortured, instrument of torture.
   But the French word may be akin to L. trabs a beam, or have
   been influenced by a derivative from trabs (cf. Trave). Cf.
   Travel.]
   1. Labor with pain; severe toil or exertion.
      [1913 Webster]

            As everything of price, so this doth require
            travail.                              --Hooker.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Parturition; labor; as, an easy travail.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

travail
    n 1: concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of
         contractions to the birth of a child; "she was in labor for
         six hours" [syn: parturiency, labor, labour,
         confinement, lying-in, travail, childbed]
    2: use of physical or mental energy; hard work; "he got an A for
       effort"; "they managed only with great exertion" [syn:
       effort, elbow grease, exertion, travail, sweat]
    v 1: work hard; "She was digging away at her math homework";
         "Lexicographers drudge all day long" [syn: labor,
         labour, toil, fag, travail, grind, drudge,
         dig, moil]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

87 Moby Thesaurus words for "travail":
   accouchement, be confined, bear, bear a child, bear young, birth,
   birth throes, birthing, blessed event, calve, cast, childbearing,
   childbed, childbirth, confinement, delivery, dig, dirty work,
   donkeywork, drop, drudge, drudgery, employment, fag, farrow,
   fatigue, fawn, foal, genesis, give birth, giving birth, grind,
   grub, hammer, hammer away, handiwork, handwork, hatching, have,
   have a baby, have young, having a baby, industry, kitten, labor,
   lamb, lick, lick of work, lie in, litter, manual labor, moil,
   multiparity, nascency, nativity, pains, parturition, peg, peg away,
   plod, plug, plug along, plug away, plugging, pound away, pup,
   rat race, scut work, slavery, slog, spadework, stroke,
   stroke of work, struggle, sweat, task, the Nativity, the stork,
   throw, tiresome work, toil, treadmill, wade through, whelp, work,
   work away, yean



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

TRAVAIL. The act of child-bearing.
     2. A woman is said to be in her travail from the time the pains of
child-bearing commence until her delivery. 5 Pick. 63; 6 Greenl. R. 460.
     3. In some states, to render the mother of a bastard child a competent
witness in the prosecution of the alleged father, she must have accused him
of being the father during the time of her travail. 2 Root, R. 490; 1 Root,
R. 107; 2 Mass. R. 443; 5 Mass. R. 518; 8 Greenl. R. 163; 3 N. H. Rep. 135;
6 Greenl. R. 460. But in Connecticut, when the state prosecutes, the mother
is competent, although she did not accuse the father during her travail. 1
Day, R. 278.