toll
/təʊl/[t(ʰ)əʊ̯ɫ]
toll noun: 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. Also the simple past and past participle of tell.
Noun (1)
toll (plural tolls)
- 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.
- Meanwhile, the tolls dispute had gone to the courts, and the E.L.R. was completely successful when, in 1856, the House of Lords awarded it the sum of £30,000 against the L.Y.R. for tolls overcharged.1957 October, M. D. Greville and G. O. Holt, “Railway Development in Manchester—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 726
- Loss or damage incurred through a disaster.
- The war has taken its toll on the people.
- A fee paid by the owner of materials or other goods for processing such goods, as under a tolling agreement.
- toll ore refining; toll manufacturing
- 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.
- A tollbooth.
- We will be replacing some manned tolls with high-speed device readers.
- A liberty to buy and sell within the bounds of a manor.
- A portion of grain taken by a miller as a compensation for grinding.
Verb (1)
toll (third-person singular simple present tolls, present participle tolling, simple past and past participle tolled)
- To impose a fee for the use of.
- Once more it is proposed to toll the East River bridges.
- To levy a toll on (someone or something).
- No Italian priest
Shall tithe or toll in our dominions.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- No Italian priest
- To take as a toll.
- To pay a toll or tallage.
- I will buy me a sonne in Law in a faire, and toule for this. Ile none of him.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
Noun (2)
toll (plural tolls)
- The act or sound of ringing a bell, especially slowly, as with a church or cemetery bell.
Verb (2)
toll (third-person singular simple present tolls, present participle tolling, simple past and past participle tolled)
- To ring (a bell) slowly and repeatedly.
- Martin tolled the great bell every day.
- Ask not for whom the bell tolls.
- To summon by ringing a bell.
- The ringer tolled the workers back from the fields for vespers.
- When hollow murmurs of their evening bells
Dismiss the sleepy swains, and toll them to their cells.1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
- To announce by ringing a bell.
- The bells tolled the King’s death.
- Slow tolls the village-clock the drowſy hour;
The partridge burſts away on whirring wings;
Deep mourns the turtle in ſequeſter'd bower,
And ſhrill lark carols clear from her aereal tour.1771, James Beattie, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the First, London: […] E[dward] & C[harles] Dilly, […]; Edinburgh: A[lexander] Kincaid and W[illiam] Creech; and J[ohn]...
- To make a sound as if made by a bell.
- The chaplain's first mention of the name Yossarian! had tolled deep in his memory like a portentous gong.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Chief White Halfoat”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 213
Verb (3)
toll (third-person singular simple present tolls, present participle tolling, simple past and past participle tolled)
Verb (4)
toll (third-person singular simple present tolls, present participle tolling, simple past and past participle tolled)
- To take away; to vacate; to annul.
- To suspend.
- The statute of limitations defense was tolled as a result of the defendant’s wrongful conduct.
Proper noun capitalized: Toll
Toll
- A surname.
Also used as
toll is also the simple past and past participle of tell.
toll meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
toll in Hindi
- loss or damage
- क्षतिपूर्ति kṣatipūrti
- fee for using roads and bridges
- पथकर pathkar
toll in Tamil
- சுங்கவரி
toll in Marathi
- टोल, टोल करण्यासाठी, टोल करणे
toll in Urdu
- ٹال
More languagesFewer languages
- toll in Bengali
- টোল, টোল করার জন্য, টোল করতে
- toll in Telugu
- టోల్
- toll in Malayalam
- ടോൾ, ടോൾ ചെയ്യാൻ, ടോൾ ചെയ്യാനായി
- toll in Punjabi
- ਟੋਲ, ਟੌਲ, ਟੋਲ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
- toll in Gujarati
- ટોલ, ટૉલ, ટોલ કરવા માટે
- toll in Odia
- ଟୋଲ, ଟୋଲ କରିବା ପାଇଁ, ଟୋଲ କରିବାକୁ
- toll in Nepali
- टोल, टोल गर्न
- toll in Arabic
- خَسَائِر ḵasāʔir, رَسْم rasm
- toll in Indonesian
- tol
Examples of toll in a sentence
- The listeners were moved to tears by the luctiferous tolling of the funeral bells.
- Time had taken its toll on the old bridge, and it was no longer sound.
- Heavy smoking and drinking will take its toll on a person's health.
Synonyms of toll
Forms of toll
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tolls |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tolls |
| present participle | tolling |
| past participle | tolled |
| past | tolled |
| alternative form | tole |
| alternative form | toal |
Origin of toll
From Middle English toll, tol, tolle, from Old English toll m or n and toln f (“toll, duty, custom”), from Proto-West Germanic *toll, *tolnu, from Proto-Germanic *tullaz, *tullō (“that which is counted or told, reckoning”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“calculation, fraud”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tol (“toll”), Dutch tol (“toll”), German Zoll (“toll, duty, customs”), Danish told (“toll, duty, tariff”), Swedish tull (“toll, customs”), Icelandic tollur (“toll, customs”). More at tell, tale. 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 (telṓnion, “toll-house”), from τέλος (télos, “tax”).
Probably the same as Etymology 3. Possibly related to or influenced by toil
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”).
Words formed from toll
- antitoll
- burn the coal, pay the toll
- Cameron Toll
- death toll
- e-toll
- take a toll
- take its toll
- tollage
- toll barrier
- toll booth
- toll bridge
- toll call
- toll castle
- tolldish
- toll-free
- tollgate
- tollgatherer
- tollhouse
- tollkeeper
- toll line
- tollman
- tollmaster
- tollperson
- toll road
- tolltaker
- tollway
- tollwoman
- toller
- tollable
- untolled
Phrases with toll
- toll shop
- toll calls
- toll genes
- toll lines
- toll plaza
- toll roads
- toll shops
- toll booths
- toll plazas
- took a toll
- taken a toll
- takes a toll
10 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with toll
47 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- parole
- dole
- goal
- patrol
- role
- swole
- bricole
- condole
- mole
- noel
- whole
- stroll
- bole
- knoll
- shoal
- carmagnole
- foal
- pistole
- prole
- Seoul
- stole
- thole
- Tyrol
- baklol
- cajole
- console
- decontrol
- dhole
- droll
- extol
- extrasystole
- gnoll
- hop pole
- indol
- kohl
- memorial pole
- micromole
- mol
- Nicole
- nole
- ole
- parasystole
- schizocoel
- schizocoele
- sowl
- square peg in a round hole
- vole
Questions about toll
- What does toll mean?
- Toll means 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.
- What is toll in Hindi?
- Toll in Hindi is क्षतिपूर्ति (kṣatipūrti), पथकर (pathkar). See Toll meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is toll?
- Toll can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce toll?
- Toll is pronounced /təʊl/.
- What is the plural of toll?
- The plural of toll is tolls.
Words near toll in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: toll (page history and authors); Toll (page history and authors); toll (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toll (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toll (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toll (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toll (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toll (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toll (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toll (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toll (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); toll (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-toll.wav, En-us-toll.ogg.
Cite this entry: “toll.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/toll. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.