toil

1
[ toil ]
See synonyms for: toiltoiledtoilingtoils on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. hard and continuous work; exhausting labor or effort.

  2. a laborious task.

  1. Archaic. battle; strife; struggle.

verb (used without object)
  1. to engage in hard and continuous work; labor arduously: to toil in the fields.

  2. to move or travel with difficulty, weariness, or pain.

verb (used with object)
  1. to accomplish or produce by toil.

Origin of toil

1
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English noun toil(e) “violent conflict, battle,” from Anglo-French toil(e), toyl “contention,” from Old French toeil, tooil “confusion, contention, battle,” ultimately from Latin tudiculāre “to stir up, beat,” verbal derivative of tudicula “machine for crushing olives,” equivalent to tudi- (stem of tundere “to strike, beat”) + -cula -cule2

Other words for toil

Opposites for toil

Other words from toil

  • toiler, noun
  • un·toil·ing, adjective

Words Nearby toil

Other definitions for toil (2 of 2)

toil2
[ toil ]

noun
  1. Usually toils .

    • a net or series of nets in which game known to be in the area is trapped or into which game outside of the area is driven.

    • trap; snare: to be caught in the toils of a gigantic criminal conspiracy.

  2. Archaic. any snare or trap for wild beasts.

Origin of toil

2
Fifst recorded in 1520–30; from French toile, from Latin tēla “web”

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use toil in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for toil (1 of 2)

toil1

/ (tɔɪl) /


noun
  1. hard or exhausting work

  2. an obsolete word for strife

verb
  1. (intr) to labour

  2. (intr) to progress with slow painful movements: to toil up a hill

  1. (tr) archaic to achieve by toil

Origin of toil

1
C13: from Anglo-French toiler to struggle, from Old French toeillier to confuse, from Latin tudiculāre to stir, from tudicula machine for bruising olives, from tudes a hammer, from tundere to beat

Derived forms of toil

  • toiler, noun

British Dictionary definitions for toil (2 of 2)

toil2

/ (tɔɪl) /


noun
  1. (often plural) a net or snare: the toils of fortune had ensnared him

  2. archaic a trap for wild beasts

Origin of toil

2
C16: from Old French toile, from Latin tēla loom

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012