Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - toil

 I. noun  Etymology: Middle English ~e, from Anglo-French toyl, from ~ler  Date: 14th century  1. archaic  a. struggle, battle  b. laborious effort  2. long strenuous fatiguing labor  Synonyms: see work  • ~ful adjective  • ~fully adverb  II. verb  Etymology: Middle English, to argue, struggle, from Anglo-French ~ler to make dirty, fight, wrangle, from Latin tudiculare to crush, grind, from tudicula machine for crushing olives, diminutive of tudes hammer; akin to Latin tundere to beat — more at contusion  Date: 14th century  intransitive verb  1. to work hard and long  2. to proceed with laborious effort ; plod  transitive verb  1. archaic overwork  2. archaic to get or accomplish with great effort  • ~er noun  III. noun  Etymology: Middle French ~e cloth, net, from Old French teile, Latin tela cloth on a loom — more at subtle  Date: circa 1529  1. a net to trap game  2. something by which one is held fast or inextricably involved ; snare, trap — usually used in plural caught in the ~s of the law