Toll Definition

tōl
tolled, tolling, tolls
noun
tolls
A tax or charge for a privilege, esp. for permission to pass over a bridge, along a highway, etc.
Webster's New World
A charge for service or extra service, as for transportation, for a long-distance telephone call, or, formerly, for having one's grain milled.
Webster's New World
An amount or extent of loss or destruction, as of life, health, or property.
American Heritage
The number lost, taken, exacted, etc.; exaction.
The tornado took a heavy toll of lives.
Webster's New World
The act of tolling a bell.
Webster's New World
verb
tolled, tolling, tolls
To collect a toll or tolls.
Webster's New World
To take or gather as a toll.
Webster's New World
To impose a toll on.
Webster's New World
To charge a fee for using (a structure, such as a bridge).
American Heritage
To ring (a church bell, etc.) slowly with regularly repeated strokes, esp. for announcing a death.
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Toll

Noun

Singular:
toll
Plural:
tolls

Origin of Toll

  • From Middle English tol, tolle, from Old English tol, toll, toln (“toll, duty, custom"), from Proto-Germanic *tullō (“what is counted or told"), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud"). Cognate with Dutch tol (“toll"), German Zoll (“toll, duty, customs"), Danish told (“toll, duty, tariff"), Swedish tull (“toll, customs"), Icelandic tollur (“toll"), Latin dolus (“trick, deception"). More at tell, tale.

    From Wiktionary

  • From Middle English tolen, tollen, variation of tullen, tillen (“to draw, allure, entice"), from Old English *tyllan, *tillan (“to pull, draw, attract") (found in compounds fortyllan (“to seduce, lead astray, draw away from the mark, deceive") and betyllan, betillan (“to lure, decoy")), related to Old Frisian tilla (“to lift, raise"), Dutch tillen (“to lift, raise, weigh, buy"), Low German tillen (“to lift, remove"), Swedish dialectal tille (“to take up, appropriate").

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English tol from Old English variant of toln from Medieval Latin tolōnīum from Latin telōnēum tollbooth from Greek telōneion from telōnēs tax collector from telos tax telə- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Alternate etymology derives Old English toll, from Medieval Latin tolōneum, tolōnium, alteration (due to the Germanic forms above) of Latin telōneum, from Ancient Greek τελώνιον (telōnion, “toll-house"), from τέλος (telos, “tax").

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English tollen to ring an alarm perhaps from tollen to entice, pull variant of tillen from Old English -tyllan

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Probably the same as Etymology 3. Possibly related to or influenced by toil

    From Wiktionary

  • From Latin tollere

    From Wiktionary

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