Toil Definition
(intransitive) To struggle.
To weary through excessive labour.
Origin of Toil
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From Middle English toilen, toylen, apparently a conflation of Anglo-Norman toiler (“to agitate, stir up, entangle") (compare Old Northern French toiller, touellier ("to agitate, stir"; of unknown origin)), and Middle English tilen, 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 *tilōnÄ… (“to strive, reach for, aim for, hurry"). Cognate with Scots tulyie (“to quarrel, flite, contend").
From Wiktionary
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Alternate etymology derives Middle English toilen, toylen from Middle Dutch tuylen, teulen (“to work, labour, till"), from tuyl (“agriculture, labour, toil"). Cognate with Old Frisian teula (“to labour, toil"), Old Frisian teule (“labour, work"). More at till.
From Wiktionary
Middle English toilen from Anglo-Norman toiler to stir about from Latin tudiculāre from tudicula a machine for bruising olives diminutive of tudes hammer
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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French toile cloth from Old French teile from Latin tēla web teks- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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