toil
 I. toil1 (toil)intr.v. toiled, toil·ing, toils
1. To labor continuously; work strenuously.
2. To proceed with difficulty:
toiling over the mountains.n.
1. Exhausting labor or effort: “A bit of the blackest and coarsest bread is... the sole recompense and the sole profit attaching to so arduous a toil” (George Sand). See Synonyms at work.
2. Archaic. Strife; contention. [Middle English toilen, from Anglo-Norman toiler, to stir about, from Latin tudiculāre, from tudicula, a machine for bruising olives, diminutive of tudes, hammer.] toilʹer n. II. toil2 (toil)n.
1. Something that binds, snares, or entangles one; an entrapment. Often used in the plural:
caught in the toils of despair.
2. Archaic. A net for trapping game. [French toile, cloth, from Old French teile, from Latin tēla, web. See teks- in Indo-European Roots.]
|
|
