toil away

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.

One descendant of our last common ancestor went on to engulf a photosynthetic bacterium, which would then toil away harnessing the power of the sun to fuel this progenitor of all plants.

From Salon • Mar. 5, 2025

After watching her mother toil away selling food on the streets and any other job to pay rent, Rodríguez decided from an early age she didn’t want to follow the same path.

From Seattle Times • May 26, 2024

The pigs in Animal Farm start to act more and more like humans - living it up in the old farmer's house, while the rest of the animals toil away, often cold, hungry and over-worked.

From BBC • Jun. 24, 2023

Researchers toil away for decades at obscure limits of human knowledge, collecting and analyzing data, refining theories, writing, debating, and advancing our understanding of the world in tiny increments.

From Scientific American • Mar. 23, 2022

We toil away for a couple hours in the heat, sweating and even finding moments to laugh.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed