Obs. [= F. travail, pl. travails (1467–8, traval in Godef., Compl., in same sense). Cf. Cotgr., ‘Travail:… also the frame whereinto Farriers put vnrulie horses, when they shooe or dresse them.’ Derivation disputed: by some referred to L. trepālium (see TRAVAIL v.), by others to L. *trabāculum, or other deriv. of trabs, trabem beam, thing made of beams or timbers.] A kind of quadrangular frame in which restive horses are secured in order to be shod. Cf. TRAVE sb. 2.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., Wks. (Grosart), V. 141. The trauaile wherein smithes put wilde horses when they shoo them.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Travail, in the manege. See the article Travice…. This in some of the remoter parts of England goes by the name of a break; and is called in French Travail.
1721. Misc., in Ann. Reg., 177/2. Trabale is derived from trabs, from whence, as I conjecture, proceeds the word travail (travise), which … denotes that machine in which Farriers confine mettlesome and vicious horses in order to shoe them.
