DictionaryAI

toll

SayTOHL/toʊl//təʊl/

Pluraltolls

Verbtolls, tolling, tolled

15 meanings of toll

Practice

  1. 1
    disaster lossesnouncountable
    The loss, damage, suffering, or death caused by an event, activity, or situation, such as a disaster, war, or prolonged strain.

    The earthquake's toll climbed into the thousands within days.

    Years of drought took a quiet toll on the farming families.

    UsageCommon in take its toll on and death toll: stress took its toll on her health.

    Similarcost

    Note

    Here the reckoning is counted in losses rather than coins, a figurative turn on the fee for passage.

  2. 2
    price to passnouncountable
    A fee paid for a privilege or liberty, especially for passing over a bridge or highway or selling goods at a market.

    Drivers pay a toll each time they enter the tunnel.

    Merchants once owed a toll for every stall they set up at the fair.

    UsageYou pay a toll; a road that charges one is a toll road.

    Similarfee, charge, levy, duty

    Note

    A toll is a sum reckoned against a privilege such as crossing or trading. Tolls are paid, charged and sometimes overcharged. Greville and Holt's history of Manchester's railways records a company winning £30,000 in 1856 for tolls overcharged.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Greville and Holt’s account of Manchester’s railway history records a company receiving £30,000 in 1856 for overcharged tolls. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    pay stationnounUScountable
    A booth at which a fee is collected for using a road or bridge.

    Traffic backed up for a mile behind the toll on the interstate.

    She rolled down her window at the toll and handed over the cash.

    UsageUse at the toll for the location. Tollbooth makes the booth meaning explicit.

    Note

    An American shortening in which the fee lends its name to the place where it is paid. In US usage, tolls can be the booths themselves, whether staffed or automated, as when manned tolls are replaced by high-speed device readers.

  4. 4
    charge driversverbtransitive
    To charge a fee, or take a portion of goods, for the use of something such as a road or bridge, or from people or things passing through.

    The agency will toll the highway to pay for ongoing repairs.

    Several states now toll their major commuter routes.

    UsageA road or bridge can be the object: toll a highway. Drivers pay to use a tolled road.

    Note

    Older use could also make the payer the object, levying a toll on travelers or their goods.

  5. 5
    make a bell ringverbtransitive or intransitive
    To ring a bell slowly and repeatedly, or (of a bell or something like a bell) to sound in this way, often to announce a death or call people together.

    Monks toll the chapel bell each evening before prayers.

    They toll the bell to mark the passing hours.

    UsageThe ringer or the bell can be the subject: they toll the bell, the bell tolls.

    Similarring, sound

    Note

    In "Martin tolled the great bell every day" the ringer is the subject. In "Ask not for whom the bell tolls" the bell is. James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) uses the second pattern for a funereal deathbell that tolled unceasingly from the belfries.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • James Joyce wrote Ulysses, first published in book form in 1922. en.wikisource.org
    • Ulysses describes a funereal deathbell tolling unceasingly from belfries, with the bell as grammatical subject. en.wikisource.org
  6. 6
    pause deadlineverbtransitive
    To suspend the running of something, such as a legal time limit.

    The agreement will toll the statute of limitations until mediation ends.

    Filing the motion tolled the deadline for several months.

    UsageThe object is usually a deadline, often in the passive: the statute of limitations was tolled.

    Similarsuspend, pause

    Note

    The legal sense in current use: a time limit, most often a statute of limitations, is tolled when its clock stops. The paused interval then does not count against the party.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Tolling a limitations period stops its clock, preserving the time remaining before the pause. law.cornell.edu

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of toll apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–4, 8, 12–13

From Middle English toll, from Old English toll and toln ("toll, duty, custom"), going back through Proto-Germanic to a root meaning "that which is counted or reckoned"; it is related to German Zoll and Dutch tol. An alternate account derives the Old English word from Medieval Latin tolōneum, ultimately from Ancient Greek telṓnion ("toll-house").

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

  • English toll comes through Middle English toll from Old English toll and toln, meaning toll, duty, or custom. en.wiktionary.org
  • One proposed derivation traces the word through Proto-Germanic to something counted or reckoned. en.wiktionary.org
  • English toll is related to German Zoll and Dutch tol. en.wiktionary.org
  • An alternative derivation traces Old English toll through Medieval Latin tolōneum to Ancient Greek telṓnion. en.wiktionary.org
  • Ancient Greek telṓnion means toll-house. en.wiktionary.org
Meanings 5, 7

Most likely this is the word in Etymology 3. The word toil may be connected to it, or may have influenced it.

Meanings 9–10

Middle English tolen or tollen was a variant of tullen, tillen ("to draw, allure, entice"). It came from Old English *tyllan, *tillan, meaning to pull, draw or attract, and is related to Dutch tillen ("to lift, raise") and Old Frisian tilla ("to lift, raise").

Meanings 6, 11

From Latin tollō ("to lift up").

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts