moil

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
moil /mɔɪl/ archaic, dialect, or N. Amer.

▶verb

• 1 work hard.

• 2 move around in confusion.

▶noun

• 1 hard work.

• 2 confusion; turmoil.

– origin ME (in the sense ‘moisten’): from OFr. moillier ‘paddle in mud, moisten’, based on L. mollis ‘soft’.