toil
toil
/tɔɪl/
(formal)
1 intransitive to work very hard and/or for a long time, usually doing hard physical work Hundreds of men toiled for years at building the pyramid.
She toils tirelessly for various charities.
2 intransitive + adv./prep. to move slowly and with difficulty They toiled up the hill in the blazing sun.
toil
/tɔɪl/
hard, unpleasant work that makes you very tired
a life of hardship and toil
Collocations
adjective
phrases
hours, years, etc. of toil
sweat and toil
Word Origin
Middle English (in the senses ‘contend verbally’ and ‘strife’): from Anglo-Norman French toiler ‘strive, dispute’, toil ‘confusion’, from Latin tudiculare ‘stir about’, from tudicula ‘machine for crushing olives’, related to tundere ‘crush’.
e.g.