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toil

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Toil means continuous and hard work.

(noun)

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.

(verb)

An example of toil is to work in physical labor for 10 hours a day.

See toil in Webster's New World College Dictionary

intransitive verb

to work hard and continuously; labor
to proceed laboriously; advance or move with painful effort or difficulty: to toil up a mountain

Origin: ME toilen < Anglo-Fr toiler, to strive, dispute < OFr toeillier, to pull about, begrime < L tudiculare, to stir about < tudicula, small machine for bruising olives < tudes, mallet < base of tundere, to beat < IE base *(s)teu- > stock, stub

transitive verb

Now Rare to make or accomplish with great effort

noun

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

noun

Archaic a net for trapping
any snare suggestive of a net

Origin: OFr toile, a net, web, cloth < L tela, web, woven material < base of texere: see text

See toil in American Heritage Dictionary 4

intransitive verb toiled, toil·ing, toils

To labor continuously; work strenuously.
To proceed with difficulty: toiling over the mountains.

noun

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:

Origin: Middle English toilen

Origin: , from Anglo-Norman toiler, to stir about

Origin: , from Latin tudiculāre

Origin: , from tudicula, a machine for bruising olives

Origin: , 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:

Origin: French toile, cloth

Origin: , from Old French teile

Origin: , from Latin tēla, web; see teks- in Indo-European roots

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