Toll Definition

tōl

tolled, tolling, tolls

noun

tolls

A tax or charge for a privilege, esp. for permission to pass over a bridge, along a highway, etc.

Webster's New World

A charge for service or extra service, as for transportation, for a long-distance telephone call, or, formerly, for having one's grain milled.

Webster's New World

An amount or extent of loss or destruction, as of life, health, or property.

American Heritage

The number lost, taken, exacted, etc.; exaction.

The tornado took a heavy toll of lives.

Webster's New World

The act of tolling a bell.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

verb

tolled, tolling, tolls

To collect a toll or tolls.

Webster's New World

To take or gather as a toll.

Webster's New World

To impose a toll on.

Webster's New World

To charge a fee for using (a structure, such as a bridge).

American Heritage

To ring (a church bell, etc.) slowly with regularly repeated strokes, esp. for announcing a death.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Other Word Forms of Toll

Noun

Singular:

toll

Plural:

tolls

Origin of Toll

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"). 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.

From Wiktionary
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").

From Wiktionary
Middle English tol from Old English variant of toln from Medieval Latin tolōnīum from Latin telōnēum tollbooth from Greek telōneion from telōnēs tax collector from telos tax telə- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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 (telōnion, “toll-house"), from τέλος (telos, “tax").

From Wiktionary
Middle English tollen to ring an alarm perhaps from tollen to entice, pull variant of tillen from Old English -tyllan

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Probably the same as Etymology 3. Possibly related to or influenced by toil

From Wiktionary
From Latin tollere

From Wiktionary