[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That travails.
1. Laboring, toiling, hard-working. Obs. or arch.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter viii. 7. Þa ere trauailand men gastly in haly kirke.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 3. [To] put this travailland warld in pes and rest.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard. (1618), 2. He was possessed with a mind trauelling, busie, & ambitious.
2. Of a woman: Suffering the pains of childbirth; in labor. Also fig.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1225. A womman trauaillynge was hire biforn.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. xlii. 14. I will crie like a trauelinge woman.
1641. Milton, Reform., II. Wks. 1851, III. 69. Let her cast her Abortive Spawne without the danger of this travailling & throbbing Kingdome.
1657. Trapp, Comm. Esther vii. 8. The pains of a travelling woman.
† 3. Tormenting, harassing. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xlviii. (Bodl. MS.). Þe same stone [jet] boþe blacke and ȝelow strengþeþ aȝens fantasies and aȝens … trauailinge fendes bi nyȝt.
