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tole

1 American  
[tohl] / toʊl /
Or tôle

noun

  1. enameled or lacquered metalware, usually with gilt decoration, often used, especially in the 18th century, for trays, lampshades, etc.


tole 2 American  
[tohl] / toʊl /

verb (used with object)

toled, toling
  1. toll.


tole British  
/ təʊl /

noun

  1. enamelled or lacquered metal ware, usually gilded, popular in the 18th century

"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 tole

1925–30; < French tôle sheet of iron, plate, dialectal variant of table table


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.

See Examples For:

Just days later, the Bills experienced a devastating loss against the Broncos, which led to the firing of the head coach, who held the tole from 2017 to 2025.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 4, 2026

Prior to quitting the BBC for Channel 5 in 2022, Dan Walker shared his high-profile BBC Breakfast presenting tole with 12 years as the host of Football Focus.

From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2024

It’s clear this is the sort of game that Daniels has long expected to play a leading tole in, going back his days at Mater Dei High School near Los Angeles.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 31, 2021

She also earned an Emmy nomination for her tole in "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."

From Fox News ● Dec. 1, 2019

I had tole her a little bit of a lie.

From "Girls Like Us" by Gail Giles

Many wavering Democrats in the South, especially those of the nullification stripe, were toled to the whig ticket by the nomination of John Tyler for Vice-President.

From History of the United States, Volume 3 by Elisha Benjamin Andrews

Wolves were caught in pits, in log pens, in traps; they were also hooked on mackerel hooks bound in an ugly bunch and dipped in tallow, to which they were toled by dead carcasses.

From Customs and Fashions in Old New England by Alice Morse Earle

He was toled into the Sabbath-school—more than that, he coaxed Winny in, a feat which her mother had never succeeded in performing.

From Three People by Pansy

Toter heard him hootin’ out in the swirl of snow on the Dickery pond and toled him ashore by hootin’ back at him.

From King Spruce, A Novel by Holman Day

He wouldn't go in the ranch room; but he made some sort of a talk about music, one thing or another, and he toled Bonnie Bell out into the music room.

From The Man Next Door by Emerson Hough

Although the toling of ducks is so simple in its process, there are few dogs that have sufficient industry and perseverance to arrive at any degree of perfection in the art.

From The Dog by William Youatt

In 1676 Master Mace wrote of the singing in English churches, "'T is sad to hear what whining, toling, yelling or shreaking there is in our country congregations."

From Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle

This accidental discovery of so weak a point in the nature of the feathered tribe led the sportsman to turn it to advantage, and thence arose the curious art of "toling."

From Practical Taxidermy A manual of instruction to the amateur in collecting, preserving, and setting up natural history specimens of all kinds. To which is added a chapter upon the pictorial arrangement of museums. With additional instructions in modelling and artistic taxidermy. by Montagu Browne

A more singular way still, of decoying these birds to the gun is by the American fashion of "toling," a lucid description of which I append, culled from the pages of Folkard's "Wildfowler:"

From Practical Taxidermy A manual of instruction to the amateur in collecting, preserving, and setting up natural history specimens of all kinds. To which is added a chapter upon the pictorial arrangement of museums. With additional instructions in modelling and artistic taxidermy. by Montagu Browne

The toling season continues about three weeks from the first appearance of the ducks, often a much shorter time, as these birds become more cautious, and are no longer deceived in this way.

From The Dog by William Youatt

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