Working very hard at something difficult or exhausting, often with one's body.
From Old French 'toil' (to stir, mix, or labor), possibly from Latin 'tudiculare' (to crush). The word evolved to mean any difficult, grinding work by the 1500s.
In literature and poetry, 'toiling' captures something that 'working' doesn't—it implies struggle and exhaustion, which is why you see it in protest songs and labor movement writing from the 1800s and 1900s.
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