toil

Alternative forms

• toyle (obsolete)

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɔɪl, -ɔɪəl

Noun

toil (countable and uncountable, plural toils)

1. labour, work, especially of a grueling nature
   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     ...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.

2. trouble, strife
3. A net or snare; any thread, web, or string spread for taking prey; usually in the plural.
   • 1697, John Dryden, translating Virgil's Georgics

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

   • 1823, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

     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.

Verb

toil (third-person singular simple present toils, present participle toiling, simple past and past participle toiled)

1. (intransitive) To labour; work.
2. (intransitive) To struggle.
3. (transitive) To work (something); often with out.
   • Holland

     places well toiled and husbanded

   • Milton

     [I] toiled out my uncouth passage.

4. (transitive) To weary through excessive labour.
   • Shakespeare

     toiled with works of war

See also

• toil and moil

Anagrams

• -itol, loti

Noun

toil

1. conger eel

Etymology

From Old Irish tol (“will, desire”).

Pronunciation

• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /t̪ˠɪlʲ/

Noun

toil f (genitive singular tola)

1. will

Mutation

References

• “tol” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.
• “toil” in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, Irish Texts Society, 2nd ed., 1927, by Patrick S. Dinneen.
• "toil" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Etymology

From Old Irish tol (“will, desire”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [t̪ɔl], /t̪ʰɔl/

Noun

toil f (genitive singular toile, plural toilean)

1. will, desire, volition, inclination
2. delight, pleasure

Mutation

References

• Faclair Gàidhlig Dwelly Air Loidhne, Dwelly, Edward (1911), Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic-English Dictionary (10th ed.), Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• “tol” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.