toil

CEFRC1

/tɔɪl/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To work very hard for a long time.

  2. 02

    noun

    Hard and tiring work that requires much effort.

Examples

  • I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

  • Toil and worry caused his health to break down.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. A net or snare; any thread, web, or string spread for taking prey.

  2. Trouble, strife.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. Labour, work, especially of a grueling nature.

More examples

In context

  • Then toils for beasts, and lime for birds, were found.

  • […] 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.

  • That I was going to sit still, and let you sulk, while mademoiselle walked blindfold into the toils?

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The farmer had to blank in the fields from dawn to dusk every day.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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...