toil

work, labor, travail, toil, drudgery, grind mean activity involving effort or exertion. work may imply activity of body, of mind, of a machine, or of a natural force.

• • too tired to do any work

labor applies to physical or intellectual work involving great and often strenuous exertion.

• • farmers demanding fair compensation for their labor

travail is bookish for labor involving pain or suffering.

• • years of travail were lost when the house burned

toil implies prolonged and fatiguing labor.

• • his lot would be years of back-breaking toil

drudgery suggests dull and irksome labor.

• • an editorial job with a good deal of drudgery

grind implies labor exhausting to mind or body.

• • the grind of the assembly line