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View synonyms for toil

toil

1

[ toil ]

noun

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

    Synonyms: travail, exertion, pains

    Antonyms: sloth, indolence

  2. a laborious task.
  3. Archaic. battle; strife; struggle.


verb (used without object)

  1. to engage in hard and continuous work; labor arduously:

    to toil in the fields.

    Synonyms: moil, strive

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

verb (used with object)

  1. to accomplish or produce by toil.

toil

2

[ toil ]

noun

  1. Usually toils.
    1. 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.
    2. trap; snare:

      to be caught in the toils of a gigantic criminal conspiracy.

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

toil

1

/ tɔɪl /

noun

  1. often plural a net or snare

    the toils of fortune had ensnared him

  2. archaic.
    a trap for wild beasts


toil

2

/ tɔɪl /

noun

  1. hard or exhausting work
  2. See strife
    an obsolete word for strife

verb

  1. intr to labour
  2. intr to progress with slow painful movements

    to toil up a hill

  3. archaic.
    tr to achieve by toil

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Derived Forms

  • ˈtoiler, noun

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Other Words From

  • toiler noun
  • un·toiling adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of toil1

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 -cule 2

Origin of toil2

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

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Word History and Origins

Origin of toil1

C16: from Old French toile, from Latin tēla loom

Origin of toil2

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

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Example Sentences

The reward for all that toil is something part liquid, part solid that has zero electrical resistance at room temperature—making it a superconductor.

For me, at least, suffering on the trail means that the pain and toil tend to crowd out space for convenience.

The Disc Embedding Theorem rewrites a proof completed in 1981 by Michael Freedman — about an infinite network of discs — after years of solitary toil on the California coast.

The best applications are often those made at the last minute, because applicants do not overthink their responses and toil over details they think need to be shoved into a question.

Yes, progress is being made, but it must be faster if the current toils of agency execs are anything to go by.

From Digiday

What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

In the years 1914-18, women flooded into the workplace to take on the toil of men conscripted to fight.

But football is a game in which a moment of magic can undo an hour of toil.

These early British settlers soon established tobacco then sugar cane plantations and started importing workers to toil on them.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

He was rejoicing in the upheaval that permitted debts to be paid with a bludgeon and money to be made without toil.

Not too big for the fiery old heart that trouble and toil and hunger and loneliness had never quenched.

He was now evidently exhausted by toil, and dispirited by disappointment.

Thus it lightens the toil of the weary laborer plodding along the highway of life.

The comfortable yet humble apartments of the engraver were over the shop where he plied his daily toil.

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Related Words

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When To Use

What are other ways to say toil?

The noun toil refers to hard and continuous work. How is toil different from drudgery, labor, and work? Find out on Thesaurus.com

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