toil

[ toil ]

See synonyms for: toil toiled toiling toils on Thesaurus.com

noun

hard and continuous work; exhausting labor or effort.
a laborious task.

Archaic. battle; strife; struggle.

verb (used without object)

to engage in hard and continuous work; labor arduously: to toil in the fields.
to move or travel with difficulty, weariness, or pain.

verb (used with object)

to accomplish or produce by toil.

Origin of toil

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English noun toil(e) “violent conflict, battle,” from Anglo-French toil(e), toyl “contention,” from Old French toeil, tooil “confusion, contention, battle,” ultimately from Latin tudiculāre “to stir up, beat,” verbal derivative of tudicula “machine for crushing olives,” equivalent to tudi- (stem of tundere “to strike, beat”) + -cula -cule²

Other words for toil

1	exertion, travail, pains
4	strive, moil

See synonyms for toil on Thesaurus.com

Opposites for toil

1	indolence, sloth

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Other words from toil

toiler, noun
un·toil·ing, adjective

Other definitions for toil (2 of 2)

toil²

[ toil ]

noun

Usually toils .
- a net or series of nets in which game known to be in the area is trapped or into which game outside of the area is driven.
- trap; snare: to be caught in the toils of a gigantic criminal conspiracy.
Archaic. any snare or trap for wild beasts.

Origin of toil

Fifst recorded in 1520–30; from French toile, from Latin tēla “web”

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use toil in a sentence

Does not the Pinkerton janizary represent organized authority, forever crushing the toiler in the interest of the exploiters?
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist | Alexander Berkman
Thus it is with the debt-ridden toiler, the farmless farmer and the produceless producer in their unrest in Alabama to-day.
Politics of Alabama | J. C. (Joseph Columbus) Manning
"I come from Madam Bowker," he explained to Craig, humbly conscious of his own disarray and toiler's unkemptness.
The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig | David Graham Phillips
I was the toiler in mud-stiffened overalls, he arrogant and supercilious in broadcloth and linen.
The Trail of '98 | Robert W. Service
The capitalists, banded together for the sole purpose of pillage and loot, had already succeeded in enslaving the toiler.
The Lion and The Mouse | Charles Klein

British Dictionary definitions for toil (1 of 2)

toil¹

/ (tɔɪl) /

noun

hard or exhausting work
an obsolete word for strife

verb

(intr) to labour
(intr) to progress with slow painful movements: to toil up a hill

(tr) archaic to achieve by toil

Origin of toil

C13: from Anglo-French toiler to struggle, from Old French toeillier to confuse, from Latin tudiculāre to stir, from tudicula machine for bruising olives, from tudes a hammer, from tundere to beat

Derived forms of toil

toiler, noun

British Dictionary definitions for toil (2 of 2)

toil²

/ (tɔɪl) /

noun

(often plural) a net or snare: the toils of fortune had ensnared him
archaic a trap for wild beasts

Origin of toil

C16: from Old French toile, from Latin tēla loom

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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