toil

1 of 3

noun (1)

ˈtȯi(-ə)l 

1

: long strenuous fatiguing labor

2

archaic

a

: struggle, battle

b

: laborious effort

toilful

ˈtȯi(-ə)l-fəl 

adjective

toilfully

ˈtȯi(-ə)l-fə-lē 

adverb

toil

2 of 3

verb

toiled; toiling; toils

intransitive verb

1

: to work hard and long

2

: to proceed with laborious effort : plod

transitive verb

1

archaic : overwork

2

archaic : to get or accomplish with great effort

toiler

ˈtȯi-lər 

noun

toil

3 of 3

noun (2)

1

: a net to trap game

2

: something by which one is held fast or inextricably involved : snare, trap

—usually used in plural

caught in the toils of the law

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• donkeywork
• drudge
• drudgery
• fatigue
• grind
• labor
• moil
• slavery
• sweat
• travail

Verb

• bang away
• beaver (away)
• dig (away)
• drudge
• endeavor
• fag
• grub
• hump
• hustle
• labor
• moil
• peg (away)
• plod
• plow
• plug
• slave
• slog
• strain
• strive
• struggle
• sweat
• travail
• tug
• work

Noun (2)

• entanglement
• mesh(es)
• morass
• net
• noose
• quagmire
• quicksand
• snare
• tanglement
• trap
• web

Choose the Right Synonym for 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

Examples of toil in a Sentence

Noun (1)

after years of toil in a sweatshop, Kim was finally able to start her own dressmaking business

Verb

workers toiling in the fields

They were toiling up a steep hill.

Noun (2)

a married woman hopelessly caught in the toils of an extramarital affair

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

His instincts were forged during the Cultural Revolution, in the 1960s and 1970s, when his family fell from grace and he was sent to toil in rural Shaanxi. —Zongyuan Zoe Liu, Foreign Affairs, 29 Apr. 2025

But this season has been one of toil as well as triumph, of inconsistency and dramatic defeats such as Saturday’s 4-1 loss at Aston Villa, as well as long winning runs and historic results. —Chris Waugh, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2025

Verb

Now 30, the American has been toiling in European football for nearly 10 years. —Sebastian Stafford-Bloor, New York Times, 22 May 2025

Medieval alchemists toiled unsuccessfully to change lead into gold, but physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland had better luck – though for only a microsecond. —George Petras, USA Today, 17 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English toile, from Anglo-French toyl, from toiller

Verb

Middle English, to argue, struggle, from Anglo-French toiller to make dirty, fight, wrangle, from Latin tudiculare to crush, grind, from tudicula machine for crushing olives, diminutive of tudes hammer; akin to Latin tundere to beat — more at contusion

Noun (2)

Middle French toile cloth, net, from Old French teile, Latin tela cloth on a loom — more at subtle

First Known Use

Noun (1)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Noun (2)

circa 1529, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for toil

• boil
• broil
• coil
• foil
• oil
• roil
• soil
• spoil
• voile
• aerofoil
• cinquefoil
• hydrofoil

Kids Definition

toil

1 of 2 noun

ˈtȯi(ə)l 

: long hard labor

toil

2 of 2 verb

1

: to work hard and long

2

: to go on with effort

toiling up a steep hill

toiler noun

Etymology

Noun

Middle English toile "battle, argument," derived from early French toyl, "battle, disturbance, confusion," from toiller (verb) "make dirty, fight, wrangle," from Latin tudiculare "crush, grind," from tudicula "machine with hammers for beating olives," from tudes "hammer"

Word Origin

Even though we have machines to do much of our hard work today, much long, hard toil must still be done by hand. Our Modern English word toil, however, comes from a Latin word for a laborsaving machine. The ancient Romans built a machine for crushing olives to produce olive oil. This machine was called a tudicula. This Latin word was formed from the word tudes, meaning "hammer," because the machine had little hammers to crush the olives. From this came the Latin verb tudiculare, meaning "to crush or grind." Early French used this Latin verb as the basis for its verb, spelled toiller, which meant "to make dirty, fight, wrangle." From this came the noun toyl, meaning "battle, disturbance, confusion." This early French noun in time was taken into Middle English as toile, meaning "argument, battle." The earliest sense of our Modern English toil was "a long, hard struggle in battle." It is natural enough that in time this came to be used to refer to any long hard effort.