toil 1
— toiler , n.
/toyl/ , n.
1. hard and continuous work; exhausting labor or effort.
2. a laborious task.
3. Archaic. battle; strife; struggle.
v.i.
4. to engage in hard and continuous work; labor arduously: to toil in the fields.
5. to move or travel with difficulty, weariness, or pain.
v.t.
6. to accomplish or produce by toil.
[ 1250-1300; ME toile (n.), toilen (v.) toil contention, toiler to contend tudiculare to stir up, beat, v. deriv. of tudicula machine for crushing olives, equiv. to tudi- (s. of tundere to beat) + -cula -CULE 2 ]
Syn. 1. exertion, travail, pains. See work. 4. strive, moil.
Ant. 1. indolence, sloth.
toil 2
/toyl/ , n.
1. Usually, toils . a net or series of nets in which game known to be in the area is trapped or into which game outside of the area is driven.
2. Usually, toils . trap; snare: to be caught in the toils of a gigantic criminal conspiracy.
3. Archaic. any snare or trap for wild beasts.
[ 1520-30; toile tela web ]