toil

English

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

• IPA^(key): /tɔɪl/, /ˈtɔɪəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪl, -ɔɪəl

Noun

toil (countable and uncountable, plural toils)

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

   Synonyms: derve, drudgery, swink, sweat; see also Thesaurus:drudgery

   • 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. (usually in the plural) A net or snare; any thread, web, or string spread for taking prey.
   • 1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, 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.

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     She had waited overlong, and now it was like that Ailie would escape her toils.

Derived terms

• toiler
• toilsome

Translations

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.
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. , (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC:

     places well toiled and husbanded

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     [I] toiled out my uncouth passage.

4. (transitive) To weary through excessive labour.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     toiled with works of war

Derived terms

• toil and moil

Translations

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “toil”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• -itol, ilot, loti

Basque

Noun

toil

1. conger eel

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish tol (“will, desire”).

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /t̪ˠɞlʲ/
• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /t̪ˠɪlʲ/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /t̪ˠɔlʲ/

Noun

toil f (genitive singular tola)

1. will

Declension

Derived terms

• le do thoil
• más é do thoil é

Mutation

References

Further reading

• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “toil”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 740
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “toil”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Old Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tolʲ/

Noun

toil

1. inflection of tol:
   1. accusative/dative singular
   2. nominative/vocative/accusative dual

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish tol (“will, desire”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t̪ʰɔl/

Noun

toil f (genitive singular toile, plural toilean)

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

Derived terms

• is toil le (“like (verb)”)
• mas e do thoil e (“please”)

Derived terms

• mì-thoil (“reluctance”)
• saor-thoil (“free will”)
• toileach (“willing”)

References

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “toil”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎, 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “tol”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language