Showing results for tolbooth. Search instead for tolbooths.

tolbooth

American

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

Or tollbooth

noun

Chiefly Scot.

plural

tolbooths

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

tolbooth British

/ -ˌbuːð, ˈtɒl-, ˈtəʊlˌbuːθ /

noun

a town hall
a variant spelling of tollbooth

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of tolbooth

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; 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.

Up till 1810 the town council met in a hall adjoining the old tolbooth.

From Project Gutenberg

On Saturday, the 12th of April 1567, a Justiciary Court was held in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, for the trial of the Earl of Bothwell.

From Project Gutenberg

On reaching Edinburgh, I was placed in the tolbooth, where many other sufferers for the cause of the Gospel were then lying.

From Project Gutenberg

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 Project Gutenberg

He remembered that Diana Vernon had left the library and immediately returned with the letter which was afterwards claimed by Rob Roy in the tolbooth of Glasgow.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023