moil

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English mollen (“to soften by wetting”), from Old French moillier with the same meaning, from Latin molla panis (“soft part of bread”), from mollis (“soft”); from the Proto-Indo-European root 'mel-', 'soft'.

Verb

moil (third-person singular simple present moils, present participle moiling, simple past and past participle moiled)

1. To toil, to work hard.
   • Francis Bacon

     Moil not too much under ground.

   • Dryden

     Now he must moil and drudge for one he loathes.

   • 1907, Robert W. Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, in The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses:

     There are strange things done in the midnight sun
           By the men who moil for gold;
     The Arctic trails have their secret tales
           That would make your blood run cold;
     The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
           But the queerest they ever did see
     Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
           I cremated Sam McGee.

2. To churn continually.

Noun

moil (countable and uncountable; plural moils)

1. Hard work.
2. Confusion, turmoil.
3. A spot; a defilement.

   The moil of death upon them. — Mrs. Browning.

Synonyms

• labour, labor
• toil
• work

Etymology 2

From Hebrew 'mohel', מוהל (ritual circumciser), referring to the foreskin-like shape of the unwanted rim.

Noun

moil (plural moils)

1. (glassblowing) An unwanted rim of glass left after blow molding.

Anagrams

• limo, Milo, milo

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Scottish Gaelic

Noun

moil m

1. Genitive of mol.