toil

1 of 2

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

toiler

2 of 2

noun

toil·​er ˈtȯilə(r) 

plural -s

: one that toils : worker

specifically : one that works for wages or hire

toilers in the fields

no captain of industry, just a toiler in the ranks

Synonyms of toil

Verb

• labor
• struggle
• strive
• work

Examples of toil in a Sentence

Verb

workers toiling in the fields

They were toiling up a steep hill.

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

The 60-year-old owner of All-Pro Lawnmower Sales, Service & Recycling at 555 Santa Fe Drive in Denver spends his days toiling on small engines. —Matthew Geiger, Denver Post, 29 May 2026

Yet while cheesemongers in Europe are hired in Michelin star restaurants and to cater royal functions, cheesemongers in America largely toil behind grocery counters making minimum wage. —Matthew Carey, Deadline, 27 May 2026

For the last four years, the players on stage toiled to reach this moment. —Paul Tenorio, New York Times, 27 May 2026

Though work continues to be handled outside the Trop, a workload with increasing demands with the summer months upon us, the Rays’ grounds crew takes care of a field inside without having to change clothes multiple times per day while toiling in unrelenting heat and humidity. —Tom Layberger, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

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

First Known Use

Verb

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

Noun

1549, in the meaning defined above

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.