ppl. a. That has travelled far; experienced in travel; also fig.
In the first quot. the word may be = well travailed; the Fr. probably means ‘active,’ ‘energetic.’ Cf. also quot. c. 1420 s.v. TRAVAILED.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss. (1812), II. 469. Sir Johne Rosseau, who was a well trauelled knight and well knowen [bien trauaillant et congneu en plusieurs terres].
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 208. Hystories … wrytten by wyttie and expert men well trauayled in the worlde.
1656. Cowley, Pindar. Odes, To Dr. Scarborough, iv. And Thy well-travell’d knowledge too does give No less account of th’ Empire Sensitive.
1870. Dk. of Argyll, Iona, i. 2. I have heard well-travelled men declare that nothing they had seen in any part of the world had ever produced such an effect upon them [as Fingal’s Cave].
