I. ˈtȯil, esp before pause or consonant ˈtȯiəl noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English toile argument, dispute, battle, from Anglo-French toyl, from Old French tooil, toeil battle, trouble, confusion, from tooillier, toeillier to stir, mix, soil, sully, disturb, dispute — more at toil II
1. archaic
a. : a hard struggle : battle , broil
returning from their famous Trojan toils — P.B.Shelley
b. : a laborious effort to achieve (as a task) despite the difficulties : labor
some books are a toil to read — J.E.Gloag
2. : strenuous fatiguing labor marked usually by long duration, lack of relief, and physical or mental strain : work , drudgery
for years he led a life of unremitting physical toil — John Buchan
fifty years of intellectual toil … produced the greatest of all medieval storehouses of knowledge — H.O.Taylor
nothing to offer but blood, toil , tears, and sweat — Sir Winston Churchill
Synonyms: see work
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English toilen to argue, struggle, from Anglo-French toiller, from Old French tooillier, toeillier to sit, mix, soil, sully, disturb, dispute, from Latin tudiculare to crush, grind, from tudicula machine for crushing olives, diminutive of tudes hammer; akin to Latin tundere to beat — more at stint
intransitive verb
1. : to work hard and long at tiring labor : drudge , slave
bathed in sweat as they toiled at their … digging — W.F.Hambly
inventors toiling over drafting boards — R.A.Billington
2. : to proceed with laborious exertion : advance with much effort or strain : plod — usually used with along, up, on, or over
father's bowed figure toiling along the path — Ellen Glasgow
toiled up the steepest part of the hill — Willa Cather
feel obliged to toil on through 559 more pages — O.W.Holmes †1935
transitive verb
1. archaic : to weary or harass (as a person or animal) with labor or exertion : overwork
vex and toil themselves to get what they have no need of — Izaak Walton
2. : to work on (as the soil) : till
toiled and tilled the rocky land — E.W.Smith
3. archaic : to accomplish (as a task) with great effort : get or effect after much labor : work
at last the thing is toiled and hammered into fit shape — S.T.Coleridge
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle French toile cloth, net, from Latin tela web, from texere to weave, construct — more at technical
1. : a net or a series of nets spread so as to enclose and entrap game already in the area or driven into it as quarry — usually used in plural
the practice of enclosing the land with toils and stirring it with dogs — H.A.J.Munro
2. : something by which one is held fast, entangled, or involved in seemingly inextricable difficulties : snare , trap
would catch another Anthony in her strong toil of grace — Shakespeare
— usually used in plural
in the toils of the law
the immense genius … caught in the toils of the moral and aesthetic conventions of his day — Herbert Read
IV. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
: to entangle in or as if in toils : ensnare , entrap
a toiled bird