- Toil means continuous and hard work.
An example of toil is labor in a field for 10 hours a day.
- Toil is defined as to engage in difficult and continuous work.
An example of toil is to work in physical labor for 10 hours a day.
A farmer toils in his field.
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- to work hard and continuously; labor
- to proceed laboriously; advance or move with painful effort or difficulty: to toil up a mountain
Origin: Middle English toilen from Anglo-French toiler, to strive, dispute from Old French toeillier, to pull about, begrime from Classical Latin tudiculare, to stir about from tudicula, small machine for bruising olives from tudes, mallet from base of tundere, to beat from Indo-European base an unverified form (s)teu- from source stock, stub
- Archaic contention; struggle; strife
- hard, exhausting work or effort; tiring labor
- a task performed by such effort
Origin: ME toile < Anglo-Fr toil < OFr toeil, turmoil, struggle < the v.
Related Forms:
- toiler noun
- Archaic a net for trapping
- any snare suggestive of a net
Origin: OFr toile, a net, web, cloth from Classical Latin tela, web, woven material from base of texere: see text
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intransitive verb toiled, toil·ing, toils
- To labor continuously; work strenuously.
- To proceed with difficulty: toiling over the mountains.
- Exhausting labor or effort: “A bit of the blackest and coarsest bread is . . . the sole recompense and the sole profit attaching to so arduous a toil” (George Sand). See Synonyms at work.
- Archaic Strife; contention.
Origin: Middle English toilen, from Anglo-Norman toiler, to stir about, from Latin tudiculāre, from tudicula, a machine for bruising olives, diminutive of tudes, hammer.
Related Forms:
- toilˈer noun
noun
- Something that binds, snares, or entangles one; an entrapment. Often used in the plural: caught in the toils of despair.
- Archaic A net for trapping game.
Origin: French toile, cloth, from Old French teile, from Latin tēla, web; see teks- in Indo-European roots.