- 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.
toil definition by Webster's New World
- 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: Old French toile, a net, web, cloth ; from Classical Latin tela, web, woven material ; from base of texere: see text
toil definition by American Heritage Dictionary
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.
