Obs. or arch. Also 4–5 -our. [ME. travailour, a. OF. travailleor one who harasses (a. 1300 in Godef.), one who labors or travails (13th c.), agent-noun from travaillier: see TRAVAIL v. and -ER2 3.] One who travails or labors; † one who torments or harasses.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIII. 239. Alle trewe trauaillours and tilieres of þe erthe.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, II. lxvii. (1869), 101. He ne is but a turmentour and a trauailour of folk.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke xx. 155. Earnest trauaillers for ye peoples behouf and profite.
1598. Stow, Surv., 479. By profession busie Bees, and trauellers for their liuing in the Hiue of this common welth.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. vi. § 107. Thomas Talbot an exact trauailer in genealogies.
b. A woman in labor.
1388. Wyclif, 2 Kings xix. 3. Sones camen til to the child-beryng, and the traueler of childe hath not strengthis.
