Forms: α. 4 travall, Sc. trawaile, -ale, 4–5 Sc. trawaill, trauaille, 4–7 -aile, 5 Sc. trawal, 5–7 trau-, travayle, 5–8 travail, 6 trauaylle, -eile, travaill, Sc. travale, 6–7 -aile. β. 5 Sc. trawel(l, 5–7 trauel(l, travell, (6 trauyll), 5– travel, (9 Sc. traivel). [orig. the same word as TRAVAIL sb.1, in a specialized sense and form; the latter due to shifting of stress.)
† 1. Labor, toil; suffering, trouble; labor of child-birth, etc.: see TRAVAIL sb.1 1–6.
2. The action of travelling or journeying.
α. c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxv. (Julian), 9. Þe trawalouris … for trawale ware wery.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), viii. 28. Þe way es comoun and wele ynogh knawen with all men þat vsez trauaile.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. xiv. 94. That I may haue som beyldyng by, In my trauayll.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxxv. 36. Way stricht, cler dicht, to wilsome wicht, That irke bene in travale.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, I. (1577), Ej b. After a yeares trauayle abrode.
1660. Blount, Boscobel, I. (1680), 49. His feet … much galled with travail.
β. 1375. (MS. 1487) Barbour, Bruce, IV. 664. My twa sonnys with ȝow sall I Send to tak with ȝow ȝour trawell [rhyme fale].
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, xxii. 65. Huon was wery of trauyll.
a. 1500. Freiris of Berwik, 65, in Dunbar’s Poems (S.T.S.), 287. I pray grit God him speid Him haill and sound in-to his travell.
1584. B. R., trans. Herodotus, I. 33. The way is short, & the trauell easye.
1650. in Verney Mem. (1907), I. 464. The wayes are everywhere unsafe for travell.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), I. 72 (The Rose). The advantage of travel … was by seeing a great deal both of men and manners.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 11 Aug., 2/3. Continental travel is looking up. By travel we mean quick and comfortable travel.
b. With a and pl. An act of travelling; a journey. Now only in pl., except dial.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, Pref. A v b. His eloquence, prudence,… and other like vertues … insued of hys peregrinations, and travails.
1610. Day, Festivals, iii. (1615), 56. He made (as it were) foure Travailes.
a. 1700. Dryden, Theodore & Hon., 57. His travels ended at his country seat.
1753. C. Gist, Jrnls. (1893), 84. I was unwilling he should undertake such a travel.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 182. In mortal wisdom, thou’st already ran A circled travel of eternity.
1836. H. Coleridge, North. Worthies (1852), I. 6. Soon after we find him on his travels in Italy.
1883. Cleland, Inchbracken, iv. 28. Ye’ve had a sore traivel.
a. 1905. in Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v., (Westmoreland) Es ya wad see in a day’s travel.
c. pl. (ellipt.) ‘Account of occurrences and observations of a journey into foreign parts’ (J.).
[1591. (title) The Rare Trauailes of Iob Hortop.]
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Travels, Journeys, Voyages; or a Book giving a particular Account of such Voyages.
1710. Tatler, No. 254, ¶ 1. There are no Books which I more delight in than in Travels.
1798. Malthus, Popul. (1878), 323. Some very intelligent Travels … written in 1810.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. India, I. 255. We possess the travels of a native of that country in India in the fourth century.
Mod. He took Gulliver’s Travels with him on his journey.
d. transf. Passage of anything in its course or path, or over a distance; movement.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IV. 713. [A comet] revisits earth, From the long travel of a thousand years.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 701/2. The more the variety of characters is multiplied, the more ‘travel’ of the compositor’s hand over the cases is necessary for picking them up.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 843. Cardiomotive force is equal to the output of the heart plus the resistance to the travel of the blood in the vascular system.
e. Passage over; traffic. rare.
1830. Hood, Haunted H., I. xviii. Each walk as green as is the mantled pool, For want of human travel.
3. A single movement of some part of mechanism, as a piston, slide-valve, etc.; also, the distance through which it moves; length of stroke.
1841. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., IV. 251/2. To find … the travel of the valve corresponding to the travel … of the piston substitute.
1883. Times, 8 Feb. A thin copper rod moved slowly backwards and forwards over them, with a travel of about 2 in.
1892. Greener, Breech-Loader, 32. When the gun is fired the ‘travel’ of the mainspring is utilised as an automatically acting trigger.
1904. Westm. Gaz., 2 May, 9/3. The incoming of ‘three colour [printing] at one travel of paper.’
4. Capacity or force of movement.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxx. The breaker was never able to bring her under command. She has more travel than any bitch I ever knew.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 625. A dog of high travel … will drive [sheep] hither and thither.
1892. Daily News, 31 Dec., 3/4. A crew of men in the boat kept her rocking rapidly from side to side to give her more force and travel.
5. attrib. and Comb., as travel article, -book, -monger; objective, as travel-reader, writer; travel-loving adj.; instrumental, as travel-broken, -disordered, -jaded, -soiled, -spent, -stained, -tainted, -tattered, -tired, -toiled, -weary, -worn adjs.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 23 April, 7/1. A literary man who writes *travel articles in the Anglo-American magazines.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 60. That rare nook … touched on by no *travel-book.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xx. 205. The condition of my own *travel-broken animals.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xlvi. Dusty shoes, and *travel-disordered dress.
1851. Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., III. Notes 263. Of course, with a horse *travel-jaded it is impossible to ‘catch up.’
1904. J. Rhoades, Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi, Intro. Verses.
| So men of old revered him: but to us | |
| Strange and unmeet it seems that he should lie | |
| Where day by day with travel-jaded eye | |
| Crowds turn to gaze, and critic-tongues discuss. |
1768. Baretti, Mann. & Cust. Italy, II. 324. Credit your *travel-mongers about the character of the Italians.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., III. xxi. Panting and *travel-soiled he stood.
1847. Mary Howitt, Ballads, 194. Neither to the other told How they were *travel-spent.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xliv. Her *travel-stained dress.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iii. 40. *Trauell-tainted as I am.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (1784), 52/1. Our hero travel-tainted, lay sunk in the arms of profound repose.
1887. J. Ashby Sterry, Lazy Minstrel (1892), 218. Fast our *travel-time has sped.
1822. Byron, Werner, I. i. 475. A poor sick man, *Travel-tired.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxiv. Horses or light carriages to meet them, and bring them up without being *travel-toiled.
1856. E. FitzGerald, Salámán (1909), 47. Kurd … *Travel-weary, Fain would go to sleep.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. v. 100. Both men and horses were … much *travel-worn.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VII. iv. A *travel-writer would say, ‘it would not be amiss to give some account of it.’
