toils

toil ¹  (toil)

intr.v. toiled, toil·ing, toils

1. To labor continuously; work strenuously.

2. To proceed with difficulty: toiling over the mountains.

n.

1. Exhausting labor or effort: "A bit of the blackest and coarsest bread is . . . the sole recompense and the sole profit attaching to so arduous a toil" (George Sand). See Synonyms at work.

2. Archaic Strife; contention.

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[Middle English toilen, from Anglo-Norman toiler, to stir about, from Latin tudiculre, from tudicula, a machine for bruising olives, diminutive of tudes, hammer.]

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toiler n.

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toil ²  (toil)

n.

1. Something that binds, snares, or entangles one; an entrapment. Often used in the plural: caught in the toils of despair.

2. Archaic A net for trapping game.

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[French toile, cloth, from Old French teile, from Latin tla, web; see teks- in Indo-European roots.]

Translations

toils [tɔɪlz] NPL (liter) (= snares, nets) → redes fpl, lazos mpl

toils

pl (old, lit) → Netze pl; (fig) → Maschen pl, → Schlingen pl