Word.ws English Dictionary

took its toll

took its toll is the simple past of take its toll.

Meaning of take its toll

Verb

take its toll (third-person singular simple present takes its toll, present participle taking its toll, simple past took its toll, past participle taken its toll)

  1. (idiomatic, often) To affect something, especially negatively; to damage or degrade; to cause harm or destruction.
    • Time had taken its toll on the old bridge, and it was no longer sound.
    Synonyms:
    do a number on

Questions about took its toll

What is took its toll the simple past of?
Took its toll is the simple past of take its toll.

Words near took its toll in the dictionary

  1. took it to the next level
  2. took it up the ass
  3. took it upon oneself
  4. took its course
  5. took its rise
  6. took its toll
  7. took kindly
  8. took L's
  9. took law into one's own hands
  10. took leave
  11. took leave of one's senses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took its toll (page history and authors); take its toll (page history and authors). 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:

Cite this entry: “took its toll.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/took_its_toll. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.