toil

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) Labour, work, especially of a grueling nature.
2. (countable, uncountable) Trouble, strife.
3. (countable, plural-normally, uncountable) A net or snare; any thread, web, or string spread for taking prey.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To labour; work.
2. (intransitive) To struggle.
3. (transitive) To work (something); often with out.
4. (transitive) To weary through excessive labour.

Synonyms

labor

labour

work

work hard

hard work

trouble

drudge

travail

effort

exertion

fatigue

moil

sweat

😓

hardship

fag

labour

drudgery

slave

struggle

suffer

labor

endeavor

manual labor

pains

slave away

strive

be industrious

striving

grub

swot

be diligent

grind

graft

dig

take pains

task

toilsome

trap

🪤

try

unpleasantness

wretchedness

donkeywork

exert oneself

glower at

make effort

nisus

take trouble

try hard

work very hard

laborious task

Translations

Mühe

Arbeit

fatica

labeur

travail

schuften

Mühsal

peiner

lavoro

μόχθος

treball

Anstrengung

κόπος

Plackerei

peine

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tɔɪl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: toilen, toylen

Inherited from Middle English: tilyen, telien, teolien, tolen, tolien, tulien

Inherited from Old English: tilian, telian, teolian, tiolian

Cognate with Middle Dutch: tuylen, teulen

Cognate with Scots: tulyie

Cognate with Old Frisian: teula

Cognate with Dutch: tuil

In summary

From Middle English toilen, toylen, apparently a conflation of Anglo-Norman toiller (“to agitate, stir up, entangle”) (compare Old Northern French tooillier, tooullier (“to agitate, stir”); of unknown origin), and Middle English tilyen, 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 *tilōną (“to strive, reach for, aim for, hurry”). Cognate with Scots tulyie (“to quarrel, flite, contend”).
An alternate etymology derives Middle English toilen, toylen directly from Middle Dutch tuylen, teulen (“to work, labour, till”), from tuyl ("agriculture, labour, toil"; > Modern Dutch tuil (“toil; work”)). Cognate with Old Frisian teula (“to labour, toil”), teule (“labour, work”), Dutch tuil (“toil, labour”). Compare also Dutch telen (“to grow; raise; cultivate, till”). More at till.