toll¹ Definition
toll (tōl)
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
Etymology: 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
toll² Definition
toll (tōl)
transitive verb
- Now Chiefly Dial. to allure or entice; esp., to decoy (game, etc.)
- to ring (a church bell, etc.) slowly with regularly repeated strokes, esp. for announcing a death
- to sound (the hour, a knell, etc.) by this
- to announce, summon, or dismiss by this
- to announce the death of (someone) in this way
Etymology: 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
toll² Related Forms
toll Synonyms
toll
n.
toll Synonyms
toll Law Definition
v
- To bar, or take away; to defeat.
- To stop from running (said of a statutory period of time).
- To charge for the use of anothers property, hence toll roads, toll bridges, and so on.
toll Usage Examples
Object
bell: As long as man still tolls the bell May life be well and fruitful.
Converse of object
- levy: This information can then be used to levy tolls.
- scrap: Significantly, a number of Labor backbenchers were in favor of scrapping the tolls on both bridges, against Executive policy.
Adjective modifier
- heavy: The last hundred years had taken a heavy toll.
- grim: With this population distribution, increasing human numbers and mounting development pressures are taking a grim toll on coastal and near-shore resources.
- civilian: More than 3,500 Iraqis were killed last month, the highest civilian monthly toll since the war began.
- appalling: And so my own sense is that sanctions, even the " smartest " sanctions, will continue to exact an appalling human toll.
Modifies a noun
- booth: You should show your badge at the toll booth.
- plaza: Microwave technology can now toll motorways at high speed, without the need for toll plazas.
- motorway: Monitoring efforts on toll motorways have been pushed for similar reasons.
- road: You can select to route using toll roads or avoiding them.
- gate: In the summer time, parking fees apply at a toll gate, during the off peak season tickets are issued from the cafe.
- bridge: A toll bridge across the River Trent at Walton was erected in 1834 at a cost of £ 7000.
Noun used with modifier
- death: At the time of writing, the death toll from the assault on the city remains unknown.
- motorway: Motorway tolls from Calais to La Tania are approximately £ 95 return.
- bell: At the site of each house there is a stone outline, and a short bell tower, whose bell tolls every two minutes.
- casualty: After the scandal of the needlessly high casualty toll of the Crimean War ( 1854-56 ), an assumption had taken firm hold.
Preposition: of
bell: An hour's tolling of a bell would only bring a hundred people to a sermon.
Browse dictionary entries near toll
- ‹ Tolkien,J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel)
- ‹ Tolkien,J
- ‹ Tolkien
- ‹ Tolima
- ‹ tolidine
- ‹ toleration
- ‹ tolerate
- ‹ tolerant
- ‹ tolerance
- ‹ tolerable
- toll bar ›
- toll bridge ›
- toll call ›
- toll free service ›
- toll quality ›
- toll restriction ›
- toll road ›
- tollage ›
- tollbooth ›
- tollgate ›

