toil

UK: /ˈtɔɪl/ US: /tɔɪl/ ,(toil)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

toil¹ /tɔɪl/   n. [uncountable]

1. hard or exhausting work.

v. [no object]

2. to work or labor with great difficulty:
   to toil on the project night and day.
3. to move with great effort:
   to toil up a hill.

toil•er, n. [countable]
toil•some, adj. 

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

toil¹ (toil),  n. 

1. hard and continuous work;
   exhausting labor or effort.
2. a laborious task.
3. [Archaic.] battle;
   strife;
   struggle.

v.i. 

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

v.t. 

6. to accomplish or produce by toil.

• Latin tudiculāre to stir up, beat, verb, verbal derivative of tudicula machine for crushing olives, equivalent. to tudi- (stem of tundere to beat) + -cula -cule²
• Anglo-French toil contention, toiler to contend
• Middle English toile (noun, nominal), toilen (verb, verbal) 1250–1300

toil′er, n. 
Synonyms

• 1. exertion, travail, pains. See work. 
• 4. strive, moil.

Antonyms

• 1. indolence, sloth.

toil² (toil),  n. 

1. 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.
2. Usually, toils. trap;
   snare:
   to be caught in the toils of a gigantic criminal conspiracy.
3. [Archaic.] any snare or trap for wild beasts.

• Latin tēla web
• French toile
• 1520–30

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

toil / tɔɪl/ noun

1. hard or exhausting work
2. an obsolete word for strife

verb

1. (intransitive) to labour
2. (intransitive) to progress with slow painful movements

Etymology: 13th Century: 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

ˈtoiler noun

toil / tɔɪl/ noun

1. (often plural) a net or snare
2. a trap for wild beasts

Etymology: 16th Century: from Old French toile, from Latin tēla loom