From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe toils of somethingthe toils of somethingliteraryAL if you are caught in the toils of an unpleasant feeling or situation, you are trapped by it → toil
Examples from the Corpus
the toils of something• With one bound, he was ... John Major has escaped the toils of the poll tax.• When we wake it is to find ourselves alone and separate, trapped in the toils of matter.• Yet lured they were, ever deeper into the toils of matter, and women with them too. 