I. ˈmȯil, esp before pause or consonant ˈmȯiəl verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English moillen, from Middle French moillier, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin molliare, from Latin mollis soft — more at melt
transitive verb
1. chiefly dialect : to make wet or dirty : dampen , smear
letters moiled with my kisses — Elizabeth B. Browning
2. chiefly dialect : to make distraught : torment , worry
intransitive verb
1. : to work with grueling persistence : drudge , grub
piles of earth … are evidence that here a scant hundred years ago thousands moiled for gold — F.W.Taber
2. dialect England : to be fidgety or restless : worry
3.
a. : to be in continuous agitation : churn , swirl
a crowd of men and women moiled like nightmare figures in the smoke-green haze — Ralph Ellison
caused all the wrongs of his past life to moil up inside of him and sear his brain — True Police Cases
b. : to become involved in discussion : chaffer , wrangle
last week's diplomatic moiling in Europe — Life
II. noun
( -s )
1. : hard work : drudgery , labor
escape from the moil … and money-grubbing of ordinary life — Times Literary Supplement
the drab … toil and moil of a collier's existence — Harry Lauder
2.
a. dialect England : mud , mire
b. : blemish , taint
undefiled … by moil of printed word — F.L.Gwynn
3.
a. : a jumble of sound or motion : uproar , turbulence
lost in a vast moil of noise — Norman Mailer
the moil and brine of the sea — D.C.Peattie
b. : a state of confusion : turmoil
the moil of events is … unintelligible — H.B.Alexander
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Irish Gaelic maol bald & Welsh moel — more at muley
dialect Britain : a hornless ox or cow
IV. noun
( -s )
Etymology: perhaps from French meule, literally, haystack, from Latin metula small cone or pyramid — more at metula
1. : excess glass left at the end of an article in contact with the blowing mechanism during the manufacture of blown glass and usually removed in finishing the article
2. : a coating of glass on the gathering iron to prevent it from scaling off into the molten glass
V. noun
( -s )
Etymology: origin unknown
: a steel bar sharpened to a point or a chisel end for hand use (as in mining) — compare gad I 1c