A farmer toils in his field.
- 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.
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- 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 texttoil
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 hammerRelated 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.toil
(plural toils)
(third-person singular simple present toils, present participle toiling, simple past and past participle toiled)
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.
