Forms: see prec. [orig. the same word as TRAVAIL v.; cf. prec. Derivatives, as travelled, -er, -ing, etc., are usually spelt with ll in Gr. Britain, with single l in America.]
† 1. To torment, distress; to suffer affliction; to labor, toil; to suffer the pains of parturition; etc.: see TRAVAIL v. 1–4.
2. intr. To make a journey; to go from one place to another; to journey. Also fig.
α. c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 25/61. For ȝe þus i-trauailede beoth fram so ferre londe … Ich eov nelle greui nouȝt.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 3. He was of grete elde, & myght not trauaile.
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), I. i. (1859), 1. I had longe tyme trauayled toward the holy Cyte of Ierusalem.
1548–9. (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany. To preserue all that trauayle by lande or by water.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 28. Long time they thus together traveiled.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., I. iii. 14. He supposes me trauaild to Poland.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc., 94. Why should we … quit the Road…, if we may safely travail in it?
1714. Gay, Sheph. Week, Proeme. Other Poet travailing in this plain Highway of Pastoral.
β. c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxi. (Eugenia), 326. Sen scho mycht nocht trawel hym til.
c. 1410. Sir Cleges, 16. To men, that traveld in londe of ware.
1483. Cath. Angl., 391/2. To Travelle, itinerare.
a. 1500. Freiris of Berwik, 39, in Dunbar’s Poems (S.T.S.), 286. For he wes awld, and micht nocht wele travell.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 68. He is no bodie that hath not traueld.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. iii. 111. What danger will it be to vs,… to trauell forth so farre?
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 147. A thirsty Train That long have travell’d thro’ a Desart Plain.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), I. 15. (Desobligeant) An Englishman does not travel to see Englishmen.
1855. Paley, Æschylus, Pref. (1861), 28. They have … pointed out the path in which succeeding editors should travel.
1901. W. R. H. Trowbridge, Lett. Mother to Eliz., iv. 13. [They] travelled down from London in a special Pullman attached to the Bristol express.
b. To travel it: to make a journey; esp. to go on foot.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), II. 135 (Moulines). To travel it through the Bourbonnois.
1903. Speaker, 19 Dec., 293/1. Laird, I just travel’t it.
c. spec. of a Methodist preacher: To go round a circuit. (Cf. quot. 1791 s.v. CIRCUIT 6.)
1789. [see TRAVELING ppl. a. b].
1791. Hampson, Mem. J. Wesley, III. 84. Every preacher was considered, when admitted to travel, as a member of conference.
1885. Minutes Wesleyan Confer., 8. The above have travelled two years.
1913. Daily News, 17 July, 4. On leaving Didsbury College he … afterwards ‘travelled,’ as the Methodists say, in the Brentford and Twickenham circuits.
d. To journey from place to place as a commercial traveler (TRAVELER 3). Const. in the commodity for which the traveler solicits orders.
1830. Lamb, Lett. to Wordsworth, 22 Jan. A rider in his youth, travelling for shops.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 2 May, 5/2. One lady ‘travels in balloons,’ it was said, meaning not that she soared aloft, but that she vended toy-balloons to drapers and others.
1906. B’ness von Hutten, What bec. Pam, 70. Mr. Bingle travelled in whisky. Ibid., 71. A gentleman who travelled in hygienic flannels.
1906. Blackw. Mag., April, 541/1. The Sopbist who in ancient times ‘travelled’ in sophistry as our bagmen ‘travel’ in soap.
e. Of an animal: To walk or run; spec. of deer, to move on while browsing.
1877. C. Hallock, Sportsman’s Gaz., 88. If the deer is ‘travelling,’ as it is called, one has to walk much faster.
1907. J. H. Patterson, Man-Eaters of Tsavo, xxii. 249. [The lion] was travelling leisurely, and I was delighted to find that I was gaining on him fast.
3. transf. To move, go; to pass from one point or place to another; to proceed, advance; to wander; esp. in mod. scientific use, to pass, to be transmitted.
1662. Evelyn, Chalcogr., 29. Sculpture … travell’d and came to Rome.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 582. Thy thunders travel over earth and seas.
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Philos., 129. Sound travels through different bodies with very different degrees of velocity.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xxx. 400. Pains commencing in particular parts of the body, and travelling back towards the spine.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 117. The earthquake-wave, as it travels along, causes the ground to rise and fall.
1911. E. Rutherford, in Encycl. Brit., XXII. 794/1. In an electric field, the positive ions travel to the negative electrode and vice versa.
b. fig. of some action figured as movement. To travel out of the record: see RECORD sb. 4 c.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 326. Time trauels in diuers paces, with diuers persons. Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., III. iii. 154. Honour trauels in a straight so narrow, Where one but goes a breast.
1664. Marvell, Corr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 181. His Royal Highness who hath travelled thorough all hearts.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxii. I must remind the learned gentleman that he is travelling out of the case before us.
1874. Whyte-Melville, Uncle John, viii. It seems that we are travelling out of the record.
c. Of a piece of mechanism: To move, or be capable of being moved, along a fixed course. (Cf. prec. sb. 3.)
1815. Scott, Guy M., lvii. A large iron ring, which travelled upon the bar we have described.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Travel, [as] a thimble, block, &c., to run along on beams or ropes.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. The top travels, so as to bring the case over another groove at the back.
d. colloq. To bear transportation.
1852. Beck’s Florist, Dec., 271. They do not … make good plants for exhibition, as they travel badly.
1887. J. B. Sheppard, Lit. Cantuarienses (Rolls), I. Introd. 81. The monks knowing that so small a wine would not travel,… always sold it on the spot.
e. To move on, esp. with speed. colloq. or slang.
1884. Reports Provinc. (E.D.D.). ‘How he travels,’ said of a dog, running very fast.
1894. Outing (U.S.), XXIV. 473/1. The yachts were kept traveling from start to finish.
Mod. That car is traveling, and no mistake!
Mod. U.S. Keep traveling (= clear out, go on or away).
4. trans. (or with advb. accus.) To journey through (a country, district, space, etc.); to pass over, traverse (a road, etc.); to follow (a course or path).
† To travel the road, to practise highway robbery; cf. ROAD sb. 5 b.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 1952. Þarfore, y am come to þys cyte, And haue trauayled many a iurne.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 8. Foure thynges be necessary to be … obserued of all them that entendeth to trauayle the same [journey].
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. iii. 659. Peter Belon … hath much haunted and trauayled the Ilande of Crete.
1644. Evelyn, Diary, 4 Nov. From hence we travell a plain and pleasant champain to Viterbo.
1682. Hickeringill, Black Non-Conf., xvi. The Apostles that had the gift of Tongues travelled all Nations.
1706–7. Farquhar, Beaux’ Strat., IV. ii. There’s a great deal of address and good manners in robbing a lady; I am the most a gentleman … that ever travelled the road.
1823. F. Clissold, Ascent Mt. Blanc, 21. Our path … now became far less dangerous than that we had just travelled.
1885. Act 48 & 49. Vict., c. 57 § 1. The senior judge … who actually travels that circuit.
1894. Outing (U.S.), XXIV. 366/2. The path was well traveled.
b. fig. or in fig. context.
1612. T. James, Corrupt. Script., To Rdr. Hauing now … fully trauelled this vast wilderness of Sin.
1779. Mirror, No. 16, ¶ 7. His brethren, travelling the same road, and subject to the like calamities with himself.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 156. Some … travel nature up To the sharp peak of her sublimest height.
1822. Scott, Pirate, xviii. I have travelled books as well as seas in my day.
c. To traverse, cover (a specified distance).
1660. Blount, Boscobel, III. (1680), 31. He passed through more dangers than he travailed miles.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 12. Having travelled five and forty dayes travail from Macharib.
1804. W. Tennant, Indian Recreat., II. 70. Their number is … greater than that of the miles you travel.
5. To cause to journey, to drive or lead from one place to another. Also fig.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 479. Their horses are but smal, but very swift and hard, they trauell them vnshod both winter and Sommer.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 242. In ancient time, if horses were to be travelled through snow, they made the boots of sackcloth to wear in their journey.
1784. R. Bage, Barham Downs, I. 170. His masters … having travelled him through forty pages of Cornelius Nepos, advanced him to the dignity of Cæsar’s commentaries.
1864. Pall Mall G., 4 Sept., 10/2. Graziers … stated that they prefer travelling their animals on foot distances of fifty, sixty, and seventy miles rather than exposing them to the cruelties exercised on them by the railway companies.
1891. Melbourne Argus, 9 May, 10/6. It would be advisable … not … to travel any stock at present.
