tolbooth
Americannoun
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a town jail.
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a town hall or guild hall, especially a place where tolls are paid.
noun
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a town hall
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a variant spelling of tollbooth
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tolbooth
Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at tollbooth
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I answered, That lies not yet in your power: so they caused quickly to take me away, and put me in the iron-house tolbooth.
From Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) A Brief Historical Account of the Lives, Characters, and Memorable Transactions of the Most Eminent Scots Worthies by Howie, John
He was then carried back to the tolbooth through the guards, the people making lamentation for him by the way.
From Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) A Brief Historical Account of the Lives, Characters, and Memorable Transactions of the Most Eminent Scots Worthies by Howie, John
Ian Rullock, after lying two months in the tolbooth, has escaped.
From Foes by Johnston, Mary
The market-place has lost its curious old tolbooth, and in its place stands a town hall of good Tudor design.
From Yorkshire by Home, Gordon
Mr. Welch was sent first to Edinburgh tolbooth, and then to Blackness; and so from prison to prison, till he was banished to France, never to see Scotland again.
From Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) A Brief Historical Account of the Lives, Characters, and Memorable Transactions of the Most Eminent Scots Worthies by Howie, John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
