What does “toil” mean?
- 1
verbto work very hard for a long time, usually doing tiring physical work
Miners toiled underground for twelve hours a day.
- 2
nounhard, tiring work
Years of toil had made his hands rough.
Toil at a glance
- Part of speech
- verb & noun
- CEFR level
- C2 (proficient)
- Pronunciation
- /tɔɪl/ · TOYL
How to use “toil” correctly
A literary word; in everyday speech people say “work hard”.
Common phrases with “toil”
- toil away
- years of toil
- toil in the fields
- blood, sweat and toil
Synonyms, opposites and related words
Synonyms (similar meaning)
- labor
- slave
- drudgery
“toil” is on these word lists
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