Synonyms of toiling

toiling

verb

present participle of toil

as in laboring

to devote serious and sustained effort

toiled for many years on the mammoth outdoor sculpture

Synonyms & Similar Words

• laboring
• struggling
• striving
• working
• endeavoring
• trying
• slaving
• plowing
• sweating
• grubbing
• hustling
• tugging
• drudging
• slogging
• plodding
• digging (away)
• plugging
• moiling
• straining
• humping
• travailing
• pegging (away)
• fagging
• banging away
• applying (oneself)
• beavering (away)
• sweating blood
• buckling (down)
• attacking
• exerting
• hammering (away)
• scratching
• driving
• trudging
• essaying
• exercising
• pitching in
• wading
• digging in
• scrabbling
• overworking
• grinding (out)
• eking out
• knuckling down
• overexerting
• putting out

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• breaking
• slackening
• lounging
• idling
• loafing
• easing (up)
• shirking
• resting
• chilling
• lazing
• dallying
• hanging (around or out)
• bumming
• letting up
• basking
• lolling
• playing
• reposing
• relaxing
• unwinding
• hanging
• hacking (around)
• slacking (off)
• goofing (off)
• dabbling
• goldbricking
• trifling
• footling
• dillydallying
• doodling
• fooling around
• messing around
• vegging out
• puttering (around)
• goofing (around)
• pottering (around)
• monkeying (around)
• hanging about
• fribbling

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of toiling

By the doorway to the catwalk two people sat toiling at desks, one hand-beading a piece of cloth and the other machine sewing a denim garment. — Leah Dolan, CNN Money, 21 Sep. 2026

Seth Wenig After a lifetime toiling away in anonymity, Macken hopes to display the model elsewhere when the museum exhibit ends on Columbus Day. — CBS News, 18 Sep. 2026

That’s what Francisco had done, toiling in Texas for a stint to afford a house back home large enough for his 12 children. — Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2026

To watch someone toiling away in the service of something great is not, in the end, so very different from watching someone toiling away in the service of something terrible. — Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2026

Why does the fantasy of an artist toiling away in solitude have so much appeal? — Maxwell Adler, Vanity Fair, 28 Aug. 2026

This is a team that spent years toiling to even get on the grid, and has been aggressive in its ambitions to evolve into a future powerhouse. — Luke Smith, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2026

Had the trolls toiling in the darkest tunnels of the internet shown up at her actual doorstep? — Literary Hub, 30 June 2026

These days, many would-be retirees are punching clocks in warehouses, toiling as home health aides, or serving customers in retail stores. — Ann Larson, Time, 11 June 2026