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toll

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Toll is defined as the charge for using a specific road or for making a telephone call, or it refers to the total loss or damage caused by an event.

(noun)

When you pay $.50 cents to cross a bridge, this is an example of a toll.
When a plane crash causes 10 deaths, this is an example of a situation where the death toll is equal to ten.
When you suffer a loss and feel sad, this is an example of a situation where the loss took an emotional toll on you.

See toll in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a tax or charge for a privilege, esp. for permission to pass over a bridge, along a highway, etc.
a charge for service or extra service, as for transportation, for a long-distance telephone call, or, formerly, for having one's grain milled
the number lost, taken, exacted, etc.; exaction: the tornado took a heavy toll of lives

Origin: ME < OE, akin to Ger zoll, ON tollr < MLowG tol < ML tolneum < VL *toloneum, toll(house), for L teloneum < Gr telōnion < telōnēs, tax collector < telos, tax, akin to tlēnai, to support, bear: for IE base see tolerate

intransitive verb

Now Rare to collect a toll or tolls

transitive verb

to take or gather as a toll
to impose a toll on

transitive verb

Now Chiefly Dial. to allure or entice; esp., to decoy (game, etc.)
1. to ring (a church bell, etc.) slowly with regularly repeated strokes, esp. for announcing a death
2. to sound (the hour, a knell, etc.) by this
3. to announce, summon, or dismiss by this
4. to announce the death of (someone) in this way

Origin: ME tollen, to pull, ? akin to OE -tyllan, to mislead < IE base *del- > tale

intransitive verb

to sound or ring slowly in regularly repeated strokes: said of a bell

noun

the act of tolling a bell
the sound of a bell tolling
a single stroke of the bell

Related Forms:

toller noun

See toll in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A fixed charge or tax for a privilege, especially for passage across a bridge or along a road.
A charge for a service, such as a long-distance telephone call.
An amount or extent of loss or destruction, as of life, health, or property: “Poverty and inadequate health care take their toll on the quality of a community's health” (Los Angeles Times).

transitive verb tolled, toll·ing, tolls