Toll

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /təʊl/, /tÉ’l/
• US IPA: /toÊŠl/, /tÉ’l/
• Rhymes: -əʊl

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")

Whitney, The Century dictionary and cyclopedia, toll.

. 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.

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

Full definition of toll

Noun

1. Loss or damage incurred through a disaster.The war has taken its toll on the people.
2. A fee paid for some liberty or privilege, particularly for the privilege of passing over a bridge or on a highway, or for that of vending goods in a fair, market, etc.
3. (business) A fee for using any kind of material processing service.We can handle on a toll basis your needs for spray drying, repackaging, crushing and grinding, and dry blending.
4. (US) A tollbooth.We will be replacing some manned tolls with high-speed device readers.
5. (UK, legal, obsolete) A liberty to buy and sell within the bounds of a manor.
6. A portion of grain taken by a miller as a compensation for grinding.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (transitive) To impose a fee for the use of.Once more it is proposed to toll the East River bridges.
2. (ambitransitive) To levy a toll on (someone or something).
• ShakespeareNo Italian priest
  Shall tithe or toll in our dominions.
3. (transitive) To take as a toll.
4. To pay a toll or tallage.

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

Noun

1. The act or sound of tolling

Verb

1. (ergative) To ring (a bell) slowly and repeatedly.Martin tolled the great bell every day.Ask not for whom the bell tolls.
• Joyce Ulysses, Episode 12, The CyclopsFrom the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance.
2. (transitive) To summon by ringing a bell.The ringer tolled the workers back from the fields for vespers.
• DrydenWhen hollow murmurs of their evening bells
  Dismiss the sleepy swains, and toll them to their cells.
3. (transitive) To announce by tolling.The bells tolled the King’s death.
• BeattieSlow tolls the village clock the drowsy hour.

Derived terms

• toller

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").

Alternative forms

• tole, toal

Verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To draw; pull; tug; drag.
2. (transitive) To tear in pieces.
3. (transitive) To draw; entice; invite; allure.Hou many virgins shal she tolle and drawe to þe Lord - "Life of Our Lady"
4. (transitive) To lure with bait (especially, fish and animals).

Synonyms

• (to lure animals) bait, lure

From Latin tollere ("")

Verb

1. (legal, obsolete) To take away; to vacate; to annul.
2. (legal) To suspend.The statute of limitations defense was tolled as a result of the defendant’s wrongful conduct.