toil

Use toil in a sentence

A farmer toils in his field.

noun

Toil means continuous and hard work.
An example of toil is labor in a field for 10 hours a day.

verb

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.

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MLA Style

"toil." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 October 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/TOIL>.

APA Style

toil. (n.d.). Retrieved October 17th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/TOIL

toil

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

Origin of toil

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

Now Rare to make or accomplish with great effort

Archaic contention; struggle; strife
hard, exhausting work or effort; tiring labor
a task performed by such effort

Origin of toil

ME toile < Anglo-Fr toil < OFr toeil, turmoil, struggle < the v.

Archaic a net for trapping
[pl.] any snare suggestive of a net

Origin of toil

Old French toile, a net, web, cloth from Classical Latin tela, web, woven material from base of texere: see text

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"toil." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 October 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/TOIL>.

APA Style

toil. (n.d.). Retrieved October 17th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/TOIL

toil

intransitive verb

toiled, toil·ing, toils

To labor continuously; work strenuously.
To proceed with difficulty: “The old woman … proceeded to toil up the narrow staircase before us” ( James Joyce )

noun

Exhausting labor or effort. See Synonyms at work.
Archaic Strife; contention.

Origin of toil

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:

toil′er
noun

noun

often toils Something that binds, snares, or entangles one; an entrapment: caught in the toils of despair.
Archaic A net for trapping game.

Origin of toil

French toile cloth from Old French teile from Latin tēla web ; see teks- in Indo-European roots.

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"toil." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 17 October 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/TOIL>.

APA Style

toil. (n.d.). Retrieved October 17th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/TOIL

Noun

(plural toils)

labour, work
trouble, strife
A net or snare; any thread, web, or string spread for taking prey; usually in the plural.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present toils, present participle toiling, simple past and past participle toiled)

(intransitive) To labour; work.
(intransitive) To struggle.
To work (something); often with out.
To weary through excessive labour.

Anagrams

loti

Origin

From Middle English toilen, toylen, apparently a conflation of Anglo-Norman toiler (“to agitate, stir up, entangle") (compare Old Northern French toiller, touellier ("to agitate, stir"; of unknown origin)), and Middle English tilen, telien, teolien, tolen, tolien, tulien (“to till, work, labour"), from Old English tilian, telian, teolian, tiolian (“to exert oneself, toil, work, make, generate, strive after, try, endeavor, procure, obtain, gain, provide, tend, cherish, cultivate, till, plough, trade, traffic, aim at, aspire to, treat, cure") (compare Middle Dutch tuylen, teulen (“to till, work, labour")), from Proto-Germanic *tilÅnÄ… (“to strive, reach for, aim for, hurry"). Cognate with Scots tulyie (“to quarrel, flite, contend").

Alternate etymology derives Middle English toilen, toylen from Middle Dutch tuylen, teulen (“to work, labour, till"), from tuyl (“agriculture, labour, toil"). Cognate with Old Frisian teula (“to labour, toil"), Old Frisian teule (“labour, work"). More at till.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.