Work, labor, travail, toil, drudgery, grind are comparable when they mean effort or exertion directed to the accomplishment of an end, or an employment or activity which involves such expenditure of effort or exertion.
Work is the most comprehensive of these terms, for it may imply activity of body, mind, or machine or, in its largest sense, of a natural force. It is applicable not only to the exertion and to the employment which involves such exertion, but also to what is accomplished or produced by such exertion and to the material upon which one is employed.
Labor differs from work not so much in its specific denotations as in its implications; as a rule it implies human work and therefore suggests physical or intellectual exertion only, but it may suggest work of strenuous, onerous, or fatiguing kind.
Travail carries a stronger implication of painful effort or exertion than does labor ; that connotation is often so strong that the term tends to denote suffering rather than labor.
Toil suggests labor that is prolonged and highly fatiguing but not necessarily physical.
Drudgery implies dull, irksome, and distasteful labor.
Grind applies to labor that one finds toilsome and trying or exhausting to mind or body.