intr.v. toiled, toil·ing, toils 1. To labor continuously; work strenuously. 2. To proceed with difficulty: "The old woman ... proceeded to toil up the narrow staircase before us" (James Joyce). n. 1. Exhausting labor or effort. See Synonyms at work. 2. Archaic Strife; contention. [Middle English toilen, from Anglo-Norman toiler, to stir about, from Latin tudiculāre, from tudicula, a machine for bruising olives, diminutive of tudes, hammer.] toiler n. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
n. 1. often toils Something that binds, snares, or entangles one; an entrapment: caught in the toils of despair. 2. Archaic A net for trapping game. [French toile, cloth, from Old French teile, from Latin tēla, web; see teks- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.