toll Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a fee levied for the use of roads or bridges (used for maintenance)
  2. noun value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something
    price; cost.
    • the cost in human life was enormous
    • the price of success is hard work
    • what price glory?
  3. noun the sound of a bell being struck
    bell.
    • saved by the bell
    • she heard the distant toll of church bells
  4. verb ring slowly
    • For whom the bell tolls
  5. verb charge a fee for using
    • Toll the bridges into New York City

WordNet

Toll transitive verb
Etymology
L. tollere. See Tolerate.
Definitions
  1. (O. Eng. Law) To take away; to vacate; to annul.
Toll transitive verb
Etymology
See Tole.
Definitions
  1. To draw; to entice; to allure. See Tole.
  2. Probably the same word as toll to draw, and at first meaning, to ring in order to draw people to church. To cause to sound, as a bell, with strokes slowly and uniformly repeated; as, to toll the funeral bell. "The sexton tolled the bell." Hood.
  3. To strike, or to indicate by striking, as the hour; to ring a toll for; as, to toll a departed friend. Shak.
    Slow tolls the village clock the drowsy hour. Beattie.
  4. To call, summon, or notify, by tolling or ringing.
    When hollow murmurs of their evening bells Dismiss the sleepy swains, and toll them to their cells. Dryden.
Toll intransitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Tolled ; present participle & verbal noun Tolling
Definitions
  1. To sound or ring, as a bell, with strokes uniformly repeated at intervals, as at funerals, or in calling assemblies, or to announce the death of a person.
    The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll. Shak.
    Now sink in sorrows with a tolling bell. Pope.
Toll noun
Definitions
  1. The sound of a bell produced by strokes slowly and uniformly repeated.
Toll noun
Etymology
OE. tol, AS. toll; akin to OS. & D. tol, G. zoll, OHG. zol, Icel. tollr, Sw. tull, Dan. told, and also to E. tale; -- originally, that which is counted out in payment. See Tale number.
Definitions
  1. A tax 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, or the like.
  2. (Sax. & O. Eng. Law) A liberty to buy and sell within the bounds of a manor.
  3. A portion of grain taken by a miller as a compensation for grinding. Syn. -- Tax; custom; duty; impost.
Toll intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To pay toll or tallage. R. Shak.
  2. To take toll; to raise a tax. R.
    Well could he [the miller] steal corn and toll thrice. Chaucer.
    No Italian priest Shall tithe or toll in our dominions. Shak.
Toll transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To collect, as a toll. Shak.

Webster 1913