toll

¹ American  

[tohl] / toʊl /

noun

1. a payment or fee exacted by the state, the local authorities, etc., for some right or privilege, as for passage along a road or over a bridge.

2. the extent of loss, damage, suffering, etc., resulting from some action or calamity.

   The toll was 300 persons dead or missing.

3. a tax, duty, or tribute, as for services or use of facilities.

   Synonyms:

   exaction, impost, levy, tariff

4. a payment made for a long-distance telephone call.

5. (formerly, in England) the right to take such payment.

6. a compensation for services, as for transportation or transmission.

7. grain retained by a miller in payment for grinding.

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verb (used with object)

1. to collect (something) as toll.

2. to impose a tax or toll on (a person).

verb (used without object)

1. to collect toll; levy toll.

toll ² American  

[tohl] / toʊl /

verb (used with object)

1. to cause (a large bell) to sound with single strokes slowly and regularly repeated, as for summoning a congregation to church, or especially for announcing a death.

2. to sound or strike (a knell, the hour, etc.) by such strokes.

   In the distance Big Ben tolled five.

3. to announce by this means; ring a knell for (a dying or dead person).

4. to summon or dismiss by tolling.

5. to lure or decoy (game) by arousing curiosity.

6. to allure; entice.

   He tolls us on with fine promises.

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verb (used without object)

1. to sound with single strokes slowly and regularly repeated, as a bell.

noun

1. the act of tolling a bell.

2. one of the strokes made in tolling a bell.

3. the sound made.

toll ³ American  

[tohl] / toʊl /

verb (used with object)

Law.

1. to suspend or interrupt, as a statute of limitations.

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toll ¹ British  

/ təʊl, tɒl /

noun

1. 1. an amount of money levied, esp for the use of certain roads, bridges, etc, to cover the cost of maintenance

   2. ( as modifier )

      toll road

      toll bridge

2. loss or damage incurred through an accident, disaster, etc

   the war took its toll of the inhabitants

3. Also called: tollage.  (formerly) the right to levy a toll

4. Also called: toll charge.  a charge for a telephone call beyond a free-dialling area

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toll ² British  

/ təʊl /

verb

1. to ring or cause to ring slowly and recurrently

2. (tr) to summon, warn, or announce by tolling

3. to decoy (game, esp ducks)

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noun

1. the act or sound of tolling

toll Idioms  

1. see take its toll.

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Etymology

Origin of toll¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English tol(le), Old English noun toll “tax, levy, custom, toll” (cognate with Dutch tol, German Zoll, Old Norse tollr ), assimilated variant of Middle English toln(e), Old English toln, from Late Latin tolōnēum, telonium, teloneum for Latin telōnēum “customs post,” from Greek telōneîon “tollhouse,” derivative of télos “tax”; the verb is derivative of the noun

Origin of toll²

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English tollen, tol(le) “to entice, lure, pull,” hence probably “to make (a bell) ring by pulling a rope”; akin to Old English tyllan “to draw, attract,” found only in the compound verb fortyllan “to draw off, seduce”

Origin of toll³

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English tollen “to remove, legally annul,” from Anglo-French to(u)ller, from Latin tollere “to lift up, take away, remove”

Explanation

A toll is a payment made for something. To drive on some highways, drivers have to pay a toll when they exit. Toll comes from the Greek word for "tax," telos. When a fee is charged for the privilege of driving on a road or crossing a bridge, it's called a toll. Another kind of toll is the charge to make a long distance telephone call. Occasionally, toll refers to a different kind of cost — a loss of human life: the human toll of an earthquake or war. Finally, there's the toll, or deep ringing sound, of a bell.

Example Sentences

But all that rejiggering takes a toll, and the cost of shipping goods around the world continues to rise.

From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026

Synkov's new employer has not been spared the toll of war.

From Barron's • May 13, 2026

Decades of inadequate investment in social housing, sluggish construction rates, and Australia's restrictive planning laws - which limit homes being built where most people want to live – have taken a toll.

From BBC • May 12, 2026

Segura’s appointment also followed a Times investigation into extreme heat’s deadly toll, which found that California chronically undercounts heat deaths, and that heat impacts disproportionately affect poorer neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2026

“But knowing that people feel that way … it takes a toll after a while.”

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

Related Words

• cost
• expense
• levy
• payment
• price
• rate
• tariff
• tax