toil

Definition of toil

8 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

(countable, uncountable)Labour, work, especially of a grueling nature.

“[…] he set to work again and made the snow fly in all directions around him. After some further toil his efforts were rewarded, and a very shabby door-mat lay exposed to view.”

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noun

(countable, uncountable)Labour, work, especially of a grueling nature.

“[…] he set to work again and made the snow fly in all directions around him. After some further toil his efforts were rewarded, and a very shabby door-mat lay exposed to view.”
(countable, uncountable)Trouble, strife.
(countable, plural-normally, uncountable)A net or snare; any thread, web, or string spread for taking prey.

“Then toils for beasts, and lime for birds, were found.”
“I was like a wild beast that had broken the toils, destroying the objects that obstructed me and ranging through the wood with a stag-like swiftness.”
“That I was going to sit still, and let you sulk, while mademoiselle walked blindfold into the toils?”
“She had waited overlong, and now it was like that Ailie would escape her toils.”
(UK, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of time off in lieu (of monetary compensation for overtime).

verb

(intransitive)To labour; work.
(intransitive)To struggle.
(transitive)To work (something); often with out.

“places well toiled and husbanded”
“[I] toiled out my uncouth passage.”
(transitive)To weary through excessive labour.

“toiled with works of war”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

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…

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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.

Anagrams of toil

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