tolbooth

American  

[tohl-booth, -booth] / ˈtoʊlˌbuθ, -ˌbuð /

Or tollbooth

noun

Chiefly Scot.

• tolbooths
  plural

1. a town jail.

2. a town hall or guild hall, especially a place where tolls are paid.

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tolbooth British  

/ ˈtəʊlˌbuːθ, ˈtɒl-, -ˌbuːð /

noun

1. a town hall

2. a variant spelling of tollbooth

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tolbooths
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of tolbooth

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at tollbooth

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tolbooth

De Montalt, too, claimed certain rights in connection with the tolbooth and tolls of Lynn, which were not to the taste of the free and independent burghers of Lynn.

From Through East Anglia in a Motor Car by J. E. (James Edmund) Vincent

"Weel, Meg, and how mony gipsies were sent to the tolbooth?"

From Guy Mannering by Sir Walter Scott

So open was the traffic that the public workhouse was used for their reception until the ships sailed, and when that was filled, the tolbooth or common prison was made use of.

From The Life of Thomas Telford; civil engineer with an introductory history of roads and travelling in Great Britain by Samuel Smiles

"It cannot be the person you desired for the furnishing of our tolbooth the other day, Sim?" said he.

From Doom Castle by Neil Munro

Gibb and some of them were again apprehended and taken to the Canongate tolbooth, where they took such fits of fasting for several days, that their voices changed like to the howlings of dogs.

From Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) A Brief Historical Account of the Lives, Characters, and Memorable Transactions of the Most Eminent Scots Worthies by John Howie

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