toil Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun productive work (especially physical work done for wages)
    labour; labor.
    • his labor did not require a great deal of skill
  2. verb work hard
    moil; travail; dig; grind; labour; drudge; labor; fag.
    • She was digging away at her math homework
    • Lexicographers drudge all day long

WordNet

Toil noun
Etymology
F. toiles, pl., toils, nets, fr. toile cloth, canvas, spider web, fr. L. tela any woven stuff, a web, fr. texere to weave. See Text, and cf. Toilet.
Definitions
  1. A net or snare; any thread, web, or string spread for taking prey; -- usually in the plural.
    As a Numidian lion, when first caught, Endures the toil that holds him. Denham.
    Then toils for beasts, and lime for birds, were found. Dryden.
Toil intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. toilen to pull about, to toil; of uncertain origin; cf. OD. teulen, tuylen, to labor, till, or OF. tooillier, toailler, to wash, rub (cf. Towel); or perhaps ultimately from the same root as E. tug.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Toiled ; present participle & verbal noun Toiling
Definitions
  1. To exert strength with pain and fatigue of body or mind, especially of the body, with efforts of some continuance or duration; to labor; to work.
Toil transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To weary; to overlabor. Obs. "Toiled with works of war." Shak.
  2. To labor; to work; -- often with out. R.
    Places well toiled and husbanded. Holland.
    [I] toiled out my uncouth passage. Milton.
Toil noun
Etymology
OE. toil turmoil, struggle; cf. OD. tuyl labor, work. See Toil, v.
Definitions
  1. Labor with pain and fatigue; labor that oppresses the body or mind, esp. the body.
    My task of servile toil. Milton.
    After such bloody toil, we bid good night. Shak.
    ✍ Toil is used in the formation of compounds which are generally of obvious signification; as, toil-strung, toil-wasted, toil-worn, and the like. Syn. -- Labor; drudgery; work; exertion; occupation; employment; task; travail. -- Toil, Labor, Drudgery. Labor implies strenuous exertion, but not necessary such as overtasks the faculties; toil denotes a severity of labor which is painful and exhausting; drudgery implies mean and degrading work, or, at least, work which wearies or disgusts from its minuteness or dull uniformity.
    You do not know the heavy grievances, The toils, the labors, weary drudgeries, Which they impose. Southern.
    How often have I blessed the coming day, When toil remitting lent its turn to play. Goldsmith.

Webster 1913