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toil

Pronunciation: /tɔɪl/
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Definition of toil

verb

[no object]
  • work extremely hard or incessantly:we toiled away [with infinitive]:Richard toiled to build his editorial team
  • [with adverbial of direction] move slowly and with difficulty:she began to toil up the cliff path

noun

[mass noun]
  • exhausting physical labour:a life of toil

Derivatives

toiler

noun

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'

toil in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of toil in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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