moil

American  

[moil] / mɔɪl /

verb (used without object)

1. to work hard; drudge.

2. to whirl or churn ceaselessly; twist; eddy.

---

verb (used with object)

1. Archaic. to wet or smear.

noun

1. hard work or drudgery.

2. confusion, turmoil, or trouble.

3. Glassmaking. a superfluous piece of glass formed during blowing and removed in the finishing operation.

4. Mining. a short hand tool with a polygonal point, used for breaking or prying out rock.

moil British  

/ mɔɪl /

verb

1. to moisten or soil or become moist, soiled, etc

2. (intr) to toil or drudge (esp in the phrase toil and moil )

---

noun

1. toil; drudgery

2. confusion; turmoil

Other Word Forms

• moiler noun
• moilingly adverb
• unmoiled adjective

Etymology

Origin of moil

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mollen, mulllen, “to make or get wet and muddy,” from Middle French moillier, from unrecorded Vulgar Latin molliāre, derivative of Latin mollis “soft”

Example Sentences

He was trained in the Jewish religious practice of brit milah — a profession generally spelled “mohel” in English and pronounced “moil.”

From New York Times

When animal droppings and garbage and spoiled straw are piled up in a great heap, the rotting and moiling give forth heat.

From Literature

Projects to moil over in the nursing home.

From The New Yorker

In reality, much of that moil is a matter of perception.

From Salon

And, in addition to attunement to this external moiling of sensation, one is also and simultaneously dispassionately attentive to the contents of one’s own mind.

From Washington Post