Toil

/tɔɪl/
C1

Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

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nounLabour, work, especially of a grueling nature.

nounTrouble, strife.

Toil and worry caused his health to break down.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The farmer had to ____ in the fields from dawn to dusk every day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The farmers had to ____ in the fields for many long hours to harvest all the crops before the rain started today.

From Middle English toilen, toylen, apparently a conflation of Anglo-Norman toiller (“to agitate, stir up, entangle”) (compare Old Northern French tooillier, tooullier (“to agitate, stir”); of unknown origin), and Middle English tilyen, telien, teolien, tolen, tolien, tulien (“to till, work, labour”), from Old English tilian, telian, teolian, tiolian (“to exert oneself, toil, work, make, generate, strive after, try, endeavor, procure, obtain, gain, provide, tend, cherish, cultivate, till, plough, trade, traffic, aim at, aspire to, treat, cure”) (compare Middle Dutch tuylen, teulen (“to till, work, labour”)), from Proto-Germanic *tilōną (“to strive, reach for, aim for, hurry”). Cognate with Scots tulyie (“to quarrel, flite, contend”). An alternate etymology derives Middle English toilen, toylen directly from Middle Dutch tuylen, teulen (“to work, labour, till”), from tuyl ("agriculture, labour, toil"; > Modern Dutch tuil (“toil; work”)). Cognate with Old Frisian teula (“to labour, toil”), teule (“labour, work”), Dutch tuil (“toil, labour”). Compare also Dutch telen (“to grow; raise; cultivate, till”). More at till.

"[…] he set to work again and made the snow fly in all directions around him. After some further toil his efforts were rewarded, and a very shabby door-mat lay exposed to view." — 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:
"Then toils for beasts, and lime for birds, were found." — 1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, Georgics:
"I was like a wild beast that had broken the toils, destroying the objects that obstructed me and ranging through the wood with a stag-like swiftness." — 1823, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein:
"That I was going to sit still, and let you sulk, while mademoiselle walked blindfold into the toils?" — 1893, Stanley J. Weyman, “XIX. Men call it chance”, in A Gentleman of France:
"She had waited overlong, and now it was like that Ailie would escape her toils." — 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The farmer had to ____ in the fields from dawn to dusk every day.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The farmers had to ____ in the fields for many long hours to harvest all the crops before the rain started today.

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