toils 1 of 2

plural of toil
as in tangle
something that catches and holds a married woman hopelessly caught in the toils of an extramarital affair

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

toils

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of toil

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for toils
Noun
  • Focus on your waist, not just your weight As the size of a person’s belly grows, studies show the memory center of the brain shrinks and hallmark signs of Alzheimer’s disease can appear — namely beta-amyloid plaques and tau tangles.
    Sandee LaMotte, CNN, 25 Feb. 2025
  • Yet as the novel moves along, and the target chosen for Hyacinth by his anarchist superiors—an unnamed duke—hovers into view, the tangle of motives becomes subtler.
    Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Indeed, a recent IRS Chief Counsel memorandum shows that these traps can also ensnare the IRS.
    Matthew Roberts, Forbes, 15 Mar. 2025
  • This is the trap Chelsea fell into last season when Arsenal’s Ben White ghosted behind five of their players and volleyed a shot into the far corner.
    Jordan Campbell, The Athletic, 14 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • Additionally, the jail struggles to provide adequate food, and unsanitary food distribution practices have left detainees vulnerable to malnutrition, pest infestations and other harms.
    Dan Perry, Newsweek, 4 Jan. 2025
  • But Moore sometimes struggles to take responsibility in the way expected of leaders.
    Colin Pascal, Baltimore Sun, 2 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • Their backups are foundational to many of the more recent efforts to archive the federal web.
    Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2025
  • Besides protecting your web traffic, NordVPN will also scan files for malware and deliver antivirus protection.
    Gabriela Vatu, PCMAG, 14 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • Eggers and his go-to production designer Craig Lathrop also put a unique emphasis on building realistic worlds—their production design strives extra hard to close gaps between Eggers’s olden aesthetic and the modern audience’s perception.
    Maya Ibbitson, Architectural Digest, 23 Dec. 2024
  • The company strives to be more than just a pet product brand.
    FunnyFuzzy Contributor, Forbes, 23 Dec. 2024
Noun
  • Even small housing projects are subject to lengthy entanglements in red tape as costs escalate.
    Dan Walters, The Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2025
  • Stiff and self-healing hydrogels by polymer entanglements in co-planar nanoconfinement PubMed.
    Monica Cull, Discover Magazine, 7 Mar. 2025
Verb
  • The former calls for a counterfactual view of how testing works; the latter calls for political will and policy ideas not currently in evidence.
    Peter Greene, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2024
  • The office also works with the Connecticut State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit, which investigates the cause and origin of fires and arson.
    Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 30 Nov. 2024
Noun
  • Echoing the raw feelings of heartbreak, the album is stripped back, with sparse snares and cymbals in lieu of a full drumkit.
    Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 20 Feb. 2025
  • Bonham’s sister, Deborah, also provided the team with home movies from their childhood, which captured endearing footage of Baby Bonzo playing his first-ever drum kit with just a snare and cymbal.
    Devon Ivie, Vulture, 11 Feb. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Toils.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/toils. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on toils

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!