Noun (1)
after years of toil in a sweatshop, Kim was finally able to start her own dressmaking business Verb
workers toiling in the fields
They were toiling up a steep hill. Noun (2)
a married woman hopelessly caught in the toils of an extramarital affair
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
But the years of toil and sacrifice have given him something the rest of them don’t have.—Adam Kilgore, Washington Post, 21 June 2024 Capricorn Rising There are seasons for toil, and seasons for pleasure.—Steph Koyfman, Condé Nast Traveler, 26 Apr. 2024
Verb
The arch and accompanying fountain, near the Diaz-Compean Student Union, honors legendary labor leader Cesar E. Chavez and includes images of Dolores Huerta, Mahatma Gandhi and farmworkers toiling in the fields.—Sal Pizarro, The Mercury News, 29 June 2024 Though neuroscientists have toiled for decades to tap directly into human thoughts, recent advances have the field buzzing with anticipation—and the involvement of one polarizing billionaire has drawn a new level of attention.—Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 7 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for toil
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'toil.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
Middle English toile, from Anglo-French toyl, from toiller
Verb
Middle English, to argue, struggle, from Anglo-French toiller to make dirty, fight, wrangle, from Latin tudiculare to crush, grind, from tudicula machine for crushing olives, diminutive of tudes hammer; akin to Latin tundere to beat — more at contusion
Noun (2)
Middle French toile cloth, net, from Old French teile, Latin tela cloth on a loom — more at subtle
Middle English toile "battle, argument," derived from early French toyl, "battle, disturbance, confusion," from toiller (verb) "make dirty, fight, wrangle," from Latin tudiculare "crush, grind," from tudicula "machine with hammers for beating olives," from tudes "hammer"
Word Origin
Even though we have machines to do much of our hard work today, much long, hard toil must still be done by hand. Our Modern English word toil, however, comes from a Latin word for a laborsaving machine. The ancient Romans built a machine for crushing olives to produce olive oil. This machine was called a tudicula. This Latin word was formed from the word tudes, meaning "hammer," because the machine had little hammers to crush the olives. From this came the Latin verb tudiculare, meaning "to crush or grind." Early French used this Latin verb as the basis for its verb, spelled toiller, which meant "to make dirty, fight, wrangle." From this came the noun toyl, meaning "battle, disturbance, confusion." This early French noun in time was taken into Middle English as toile, meaning "argument, battle." The earliest sense of our Modern English toil was "a long, hard struggle in battle." It is natural enough that in time this came to be used to refer to any long hard effort.
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