toil
Usage
What are other ways to say toil?
Toil suggests wearying or exhausting labor: toil that breaks down the worker's health. Drudgery suggests continuous, dreary, and dispiriting work, especially of a menial or servile kind: the drudgery of household tasks. Labor particularly denotes hard manual work: backbreaking labor; arduous labor. Work is the general word and may apply to exertion that is either easy or hard: fun work; heavy work.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He famously worked alone, content to toil away on his own singular vision, but the innovations he made in visual effects spread well beyond his studio.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2026
This is an incredible start to their adult life; most working people take years of toil to get to that level.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026
Putting my first special out has been so liberating because as a comedian, we can toil and toil forever, moving punchlines around, moving premises around, and new current events can influence your content.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
Stripped to the waist, men toil in the heat of the sun.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
But even if they wanted to share the particulars of the days toil, finding someone outside of Langley who understood what they were talking about would have been well nigh impossible.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
John toils as a sheep farmer and weaver, and practices a fire-and-brimstone form of Presbyterianism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
In a remote corner of the Bannau Brycheiniog, or Brecon Beacons, on fallow farmland hosting three sites of special scientific interest, Paul toils over his creations, surrounded by heat and metal.
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2025
While Noah toils away in the desert, artist Maya seeks to recolor her own faded view of the world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2025
So are the film’s many montages underlining Ryuta’s plight — he toils at multiple jobs to care for his sick mother — that reduce the character to something of a sob story.
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2024
Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come.
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
On another hot day and in improved batting conditions, India finished 154-1 - an ominous lead of 269 - as England's bowlers toiled and lacked wicket-taking threat on a flat surface.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
A native of Sonora, Mexico, Yepez and her husband toiled at various food trucks and restaurants until 2018, when they launched a series of stands named after their daughter: Ricos Tacos Naomi.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
County team — toiled for days to reach Gil, who worked as a security guard in an underground parking structure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2026
Scotland toiled at all three of those tournaments but they got there.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
She toiled painfully up the steps, shapeless, breathing heavily.
From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
Since last year, Japanese businesses have faced tougher legal requirements to help employees toiling in the heat.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
Moondra, who was born in India but moved to Dublin to study in 2021, then claimed the wickets of Abhiskek Sharma and captain Shreyas Iyer to leave India toiling on 19-3.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Church bells continued to ring out as they do habitually, offering succor to the toiling rescuers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
In 1940, Woody Guthrie sat in a Midtown Manhattan hotel, toiling over lyrics for what would become “This Land Is Your Land.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
Father had been toiling day and night to repair the leaks that sprouted throughout the house like chicken pox.
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
Vocabulary lists containing toil
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