Subscriber login


Forgot your password?

Library card login

Other

toll1

Syllabification: (toll)
Pronunciation: /tōl/

Translate toll | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of toll

noun

  • 1a charge payable for permission to use a particular bridge or road:turnpike tolls [as modifier]:a toll bridge
  • a charge for a long-distance telephone call.
  • 2 [in singular] the number of deaths, casualties, or injuries arising from particular circumstances, such as a natural disaster, conflict, or accident:the toll of dead and injured mounted
  • the cost or damage resulting from something:the environmental toll of the policy has been high

verb

[with object] (usually as noun tolling)
  • charge a toll for the use of (a bridge or road):the report advocates expressway tolling

Phrases

take its toll (or take a heavy toll)

have an adverse effect, especially so as to cause damage, suffering, or death:years of pumping iron have taken their toll on his body

Origin:

Old English (denoting a charge, tax, or duty), from medieval Latin toloneum, alteration of late Latin teloneum, from Greek telōnion 'tollhouse', from telos 'tax'. toll1 (sense 2 of the noun) (late 19th century) arose from the notion of paying a toll or tribute in human lives (to an adversary or to death)

toll in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of toll in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

  |  Cite

More words in this category

Word of the day

merrythought

/ /
noun
the wishbone of a bird …