0 an unpleasant experience or situation, especially one that involves a lot of hard work or effort:
This is because the crisis has indicated that democratic regimes may be more effective at dealing with economic travails than authoritarian regimes.
No single prior work, however, has systematically focused on the modern state's travails in getting to know its own territory.
In other words, soft news shows focus on the travails of individuals, rather than the broader implications or consequences of policies.
Note that with the exception of the verb travail, all noninitially stressed items are latecomers.
The findings in this paper also focus our attention on the travails of the strong candidates.
The travails of one meso-scale aspect of identity, ethnicity, are instructive.
There is also evidence that the travails of public rented housing and, in particular, the shortage of both capital and revenue resources have left their mark.
Statues and representations of distant kings are less compelling than the travails of the poor people presented in traditional stories that at least still attract middle-aged and older audiences.