toll
pronunciation
How to pronounce toll in British English:
UK [təʊl]
How to pronounce toll in American English:
US [toʊl]
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- Noun:
- a fee levied for the use of roads or bridges (used for maintenance)
- value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something
- the sound of a bell being struck
-
- Verb:
- ring slowly
- charge a fee for using
Word Origin
- toll
- toll: Toll ‘charge, payment’ [OE] and toll ‘ring a bell’ [15] are distinct words. The former was borrowed into Old English from medieval Latin tolōneum ‘place where tolls are collected’, an alteration of late Latin telōneum. This in turn was borrowed from Greek telónion, a derivative of télos ‘tax’. The ancestry of toll ‘ring a bell’ is more conjectural. It may be the same word as the long-obsolete toll ‘pull’, which went back to an Old English *tollian.
- toll (n.)
- "tax, fee," Old English toll "impost, tribute, passage-money, rent," variant of toln, cognate with Old Norse tollr, Old Frisian tolen, Old High German zol, German Zoll, probably representing an early Germanic borrowing from Late Latin tolonium "custom house," from Latin telonium "tollhouse," from Greek teloneion "tollhouse," from telones "tax-collector," from telos "tax" (see tele-; for sense, compare finance). On the other theory it is native Germanic and related to tell (v.) on the notion of "that which is counted." Originally in a general sense of "payment exacted by an authority;" meaning "charge for right of passage along a road" is from late 15c.
- toll (v.)
- "to sound with slow single strokes" (intransitive), mid-15c., probably a special use of tollen "to draw, lure," early 13c. variant of Old English -tyllan in betyllan "to lure, decoy," and fortyllan "draw away, seduce," of obscure origin. The notion is perhaps of "luring" people to church with the sound of the bells, or of "drawing" on the bell rope. Transitive sense from late 15c. Related: Tolled; tolling. The noun meaning "a stroke of a bell" is from mid-15c.
Example
- 1. The stalemate is taking a toll on government .
- 2. Toll roads are nothing new , of course .
- 3. The toll would eventually count four dead , 18 injured .
- 4. Komanoff 's plan is vastly more sophisticated than a simple bridge toll . Instead of merely punishing drivers he has built a delicate system of incentives and revenue streams .
- 5. Time differences also took a toll .