moil

Definitions


[mɔɪl], (Verb)

Definitions:
- work hard
(e.g: men who moiled for gold)

- move around in confusion or agitation
(e.g: a crowd of men and women moiled in the smoky haze)


Phrases:

Origin:
late Middle English (in the sense ‘moisten or bedaub’): from Old French moillier ‘paddle in mud, moisten’, based on Latin mollis ‘soft’. The sense ‘work’ dates from the mid 16th century, often in the phrase toil and moil


[mɔɪl], (Noun)

Definitions:
- hard work; drudgery
(e.g: this night his weekly moil is at an end)

- turmoil; confusion
(e.g: the moil of his intimate thoughts)


Phrases:

Origin:
late Middle English (in the sense ‘moisten or bedaub’): from Old French moillier ‘paddle in mud, moisten’, based on Latin mollis ‘soft’. The sense ‘work’ dates from the mid 16th century, often in the phrase toil and moil




definition by Oxford Dictionaries