toll

• IPA^(key): /təʊl/, /tɒl/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [t(ʰ)əʊ̯ɫ], [t(ʰ)ɒɫ]
  • (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): [tʰɔwɫ], [tʰɔɫ]

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • (Canada) IPA^(key): [t(ʰ)oːɫ], [t(ʰ)ɔ(ː)ɫ]
  • (US) IPA^(key): [tʰo(ʊ̯)ɫ], [tʰɑ(ː)ɫ]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊl
• Homophone: tole

From Middle English toll, tol, tolle, from Old English toll m or n and toln f (“toll, duty, custom”), from Proto-West Germanic *toll, *tolnu, from Proto-Germanic *tullaz, *tullō (“that which is counted or told, reckoning”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- (“calculation, fraud”).^[1]

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tol (“toll”), Dutch tol (“toll”), German Zoll (“toll, duty, customs”), Danish told (“toll, duty, tariff”), Swedish tull (“toll, customs”), Icelandic tollur (“toll, customs”). More at tell, tale.

Alternate etymology derives Old English toll, from Medieval Latin tolōneum, tolōnium, alteration (due to the Germanic forms above) of Latin telōneum, from Ancient Greek τελώνιον (telṓnion, “toll-house”), from τέλος (télos, “tax”).

toll (plural tolls)

1. A fee paid for some liberty or privilege, particularly for the privilege of passing over a bridge or on a highway, or for that of vending goods in a fair, market, etc.
2. Loss or damage incurred through a disaster.

   The war has taken its toll on the people.

3. A fee paid by the owner of materials or other goods for processing such goods, as under a tolling agreement.

   toll ore refining; toll manufacturing

4. (business, by extension) A fee for using any kind of material processing service.

   We can handle on a toll basis your needs for spray drying, repackaging, crushing and grinding, and dry blending.

5. (US) A tollbooth.

   We will be replacing some manned tolls with high-speed device readers.

6. (UK, law, obsolete) A liberty to buy and sell within the bounds of a manor.
7. (obsolete, regional England) A portion of grain taken by a miller as a compensation for grinding.

toll (third-person singular simple present tolls, present participle tolling, simple past and past participle tolled)

1. (transitive) To impose a fee for the use of.

   Once more it is proposed to toll the East River bridges.

2. (ambitransitive) To levy a toll on (someone or something).
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     No Italian priest
     Shall tithe or toll in our dominions.

3. (transitive) To take as a toll.
4. To pay a toll or tallage.
   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     I will buy me a sonne in Law in a faire, and toule for this. Ile none of him.

Probably the same as Etymology 3. Possibly related to or influenced by toil

toll (plural tolls)

1. The act or sound of ringing a bell, especially slowly, as with a church or cemetery bell.

toll (third-person singular simple present tolls, present participle tolling, simple past and past participle tolled)

2. (ergative) To ring (a bell) slowly and repeatedly.

   Martin tolled the great bell every day.

   Ask not for whom the bell tolls.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[[Episode 12: The Cyclops]]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     From the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance.

3. (transitive) To summon by ringing a bell.

   The ringer tolled the workers back from the fields for vespers.

   • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     When hollow murmurs of their evening bells
     Dismiss the sleepy swains, and toll them to their cells.

4. (transitive) To announce by ringing a bell.

   The bells tolled the King’s death.

   • 1771, James Beattie, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the First, London: […] E[dward] & C[harles] Dilly, […]; Edinburgh: A[lexander] Kincaid and W[illiam] Creech; and J[ohn] Bell, […], →OCLC, stanza XLI, page 21:

     Slow tolls the village-clock the drowſy hour;
     The partridge burſts away on whirring wings;
     Deep mourns the turtle in ſequeſter'd bower,
     And ſhrill lark carols clear from her aereal tour.

5. (figuratively) To make a sound as if made by a bell.
   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Chief White Halfoat”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 213:

     The chaplain's first mention of the name Yossarian! had tolled deep in his memory like a portentous gong.

• toller

A tolling bell refers to a slow sound, as at a funeral, while the tocsin refers to a fast sound, as in alarm.

From Middle English tolen, tollen, variation of tullen, tillen (“to draw, allure, entice”), from Old English *tyllan, *tillan (“to pull, draw, attract”) (found in compounds fortyllan (“to seduce, lead astray, draw away from the mark, deceive”) and betyllan, betillan (“to lure, decoy”)), related to Old Frisian tilla (“to lift, raise”), Dutch tillen (“to lift, raise, weigh, buy”), Low German tillen (“to lift, remove”), Swedish dialectal tille (“to take up, appropriate”).

• tole, toal

toll (third-person singular simple present tolls, present participle tolling, simple past and past participle tolled)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To draw; pull; tug; drag.
2. (transitive) To tear in pieces.
3. (transitive) To draw; entice; invite; allure.

   Hou many virgins shal she tolle and drawe to þe Lord - "Life of Our Lady"

4. (transitive) To lure with bait; tole (especially, fish and animals).

• (to lure animals): bait, lure

From Latin tollō (“to lift up”).

toll (third-person singular simple present tolls, present participle tolling, simple past and past participle tolled)

1. (law, obsolete) To take away; to vacate; to annul.
2. (law) To suspend.

   The statute of limitations defense was tolled as a result of the defendant’s wrongful conduct.

toll

1. (African-American Vernacular) simple past and past participle of tell

   I done toll you for the last time.

• “toll”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “toll”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• toll gene, toll-like (etymologically unrelated to the above)

Probably from Proto-Celtic *tullom, *tullos (“hole”). (Compare Irish toll, Welsh twll, both meaning "hole" and Asturian tollu meaning "quagmire".)

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈtoʎ]

toll m (plural tolls)

1. pool, puddle

• “toll”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “toll” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Proto-Brythonic *tull, from Proto-Celtic *tullos (“hollow”). Cognate with Welsh twll.

toll m (plural tell)

1. hole, opening
2. orifice
3. burrow
4. (low-class bar) dive

Borrowed from English toll.

toll f (plural tollow)

1. toll, tax, customs
2. (taxation) duty
3. (charge) rate

Related to Welsh twyll; both possibly from Latin tēla.

toll m

1. deceit, fraud, disappointment

From Middle High German tol, from Old High German tol, from Proto-West Germanic *dol, from Proto-Germanic *dulaz (“dazed, foolish, crazy, stupid”).

• IPA^(key): /tɔl/, [tʰɔl]

• Audio:

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• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: toll

toll (strong nominative masculine singular toller, comparative toller, superlative am tollsten)

1. (colloquial) great, nice, wonderful

   Synonyms: cool, geil

   ‚Katjuscha‘ ist ein tolles Lied. ― ‘Katyusha’ is a great song.

2. (dated) crazy, mad

   Synonym: verrückt

   • 1808, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Walpurgisnacht”, in Faust: Der Tragödie erster Teil [Faust, Part One]‎^[2]:

     Laß uns aus dem Gedräng’ entweichen; / Es ist zu toll, sogar für meines gleichen.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1924, Thomas Mann, Der Zauberberg [The Magic Mountain], volume 1, Berlin: S. Fischer, page 141:

     Wie aus weiter Ferne hörte er Frau Stöhr etwas erzählen oder behaupten, was ihm als so tolles Zeug erschien, daß er in verwirrte Zweifel geriet, ob er noch richtig höre oder ob Frau Stöhrs Äußerungen sich vielleicht in seinem Kopfe zu Unsinn verwandelten.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• supertoll
• Tollheit
• Tollwut

• doll

• “toll” in Duden online
• “toll” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

From Proto-Uralic *tulka.^[1][2]

• IPA^(key): [ˈtolː]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -olː

toll (plural tollak)

1. feather (a branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display)
2. feather (a feather-like fin or wing on objects, such as an arrow)
3. pen (a tool, originally made from a feather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used to write or make marks)
4. (figuratively) pen (a writer, or his style)

• toll in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

toll

1. indefinite accusative singular of tollur

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /t̪ˠoːl̪ˠ/
• (Galway) IPA^(key): /t̪ˠəul̪ˠ/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /t̪ˠʌl̪ˠ/^[1]

From Old Irish toll (“hole, hollow; buttocks, hindquarters”), from Proto-Celtic *tullos (“hollow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tew- (“to push, hit”). Cognate with Welsh twll.

toll m (genitive singular toill, nominative plural toill)

1. hole, hollow
2. posterior, buttocks

• tollán (“tunnel”)
• tollmhór (“big-bottomed; bumptious”)

From Old Irish toll (“pierced, perforated; hollow, empty”). See Etymology 1 above.

toll (genitive singular masculine toill, genitive singular feminine toille, plural tolla, comparative toille)

1. pierced, perforated
2. hollow, empty; (of voice) deep, hollow

From Old Irish tollaid (“pierces; penetrates”). See Etymology 1 above.

toll (present analytic tollann, future analytic tollfaidh, verbal noun tolladh, past participle tollta)

1. to bore, to pierce, to perforate

• tolladóir (“borer, piercer, perforator”)
• tollbhealach (“adit”)
• tollchárta (“punch-card”)
• tolltach (“piercing, penetrating”)

From Old Norse þǫll, from Proto-Norse *ᚦᚨᛚᚢ (*þallu), from Proto-Germanic *þallō. Cognate with Swedish tall, Icelandic þöll.

• (Brunflo, Hällesjö) IPA^(key): [¹t̪ʰɔl̪ː]
• (Berg) IPA^(key): [¹t̪ʰɞ̞l̪ː]
• (Stugun) IPA^(key): [¹t̪ʰol̪ː]
• (Fors) IPA^(key): [¹t̪ʰɒl̪ː]

toll m

1. pine, Scots pine tree, Pinus sylvestris

From Old English toll, from Proto-Germanic *tullō.

• tol, tolle, thol, toale, theol

• IPA^(key): /tɔl/, /tɔːl/

toll (plural tolles)

2. A toll, tax, or charge.
3. The privilege to levy fees or charges.
4. A waiver from any fees or charges.
5. (rare) taxation, payment.
6. (rare) An edge, point of difference

• tolboth
• tollen
• toller
• tolsey
• tollynge

• English: tool
• Scots: towl

• “tol, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 3 May 2018.

toll

2. alternative form of tollen (“to bring”)

From Late Latin teloneum and Old Norse tollr.

toll m (definite singular tollen, indefinite plural toller, definite plural tollene)

1. duty (customs duty, excise duty)
2. customs

   gå gjennom tollen ― to go through customs

• tollbarriere
• tollbod
• tolldeklarasjon
• tollfri

• “toll” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse þǫll, from Proto-Norse *ᚦᚨᛚᚢ (*þallu), from Proto-Germanic *þallō. Cognate with Jamtish toll, Icelandic þöll.

• tall

toll f (definite singular tolla, indefinite plural toller, definite plural tollene)

1. (young) pine

   Synonym: fure

   • 1908, Ivar Kleiven, I Heimegrendi : Minne fraa Seksti-Aarom, Kristiania: Aschehoug:

     tolli stod tjukk som hampen so langt me kunde sjå

     the pine[s] stood thick as hemp for as long as we could see

2. soft pine wood

From Old Norse tollr, from Middle Low German tol, from Old Saxon tolna, from Medieval Latin toloneum.

toll m (definite singular tollen, indefinite plural tollar, definite plural tollane)

1. duty (customs duty, excise duty)
2. customs

   gå gjennom tollen ― to go through customs

• tollbarriere
• tolldeklarasjon
• tollfri

• “toll” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-Germanic *tollą, from Vulgar Latin toloneum, from Late Latin teloneum, from Ancient Greek τελώνιον (telṓnion, “toll-house”), from τέλος (télos, “tax”).

Germanic cognates include Old Saxon tol (Dutch tol), Old High German zol (German Zoll), Old Norse tollr (Swedish tull). See also parallel forms represented by Old English toln.

• IPA^(key): /toll/, [toɫ]

toll n

1. tax, , fare

• tollere

• Middle English: toll
  • English: toll
  • Scots: towl

From Proto-Celtic *tullos (“hollow”)

• IPA^(key): [tol͈]

toll

1. pierced, leaky

toll m

1. hole, hollow
2. fault, want

• Irish: toll
• Manx: towl
• Scottish Gaelic: toll

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 toll”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 toll”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

• IPA^(key): /t̪ʰɔul̪ˠ/

From Old Irish toll (“hole, hollow; buttocks, hindquarters”), from Proto-Celtic *tullos (“pierced, hollow”), see also Middle Low German stoken (“to stab, to prickle”), German stochern (“to pick, to poke”), Sanskrit दति (tudáti, “to push, to strike, to jab, to pierce”).^[1]

toll m (genitive singular tuill, plural tuill)

1. hole, cavity, puncture, hollow
2. crevice, perforation
3. pit
4. socket
5. (nautical) hold of a ship
6. (vulgar) arse

• gaoth tro tholl (“draught”)
• toll-putain (“buttonhole”)
• tolltach (“full of holes”)

From Old Irish tollaid (“pierces; penetrates”), from toll (“hole, hollow”). See Etymology 1 above.

toll (past tholl, future tollaidh, verbal noun tolladh, past participle tollte)

1. bore, piece, drill, perforate

From Proto-Samic *tolë, from Proto-Uralic *tule.

toll

1. fire

Even â-stem, lˈl-l gradation
Nominative	toll
Genitive	tool
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	toll	tool
Accusative	tool	toolid
Genitive	tool	tooli
Illative	toʹlle	toolid
Locative	toolâst	toolin
Comitative	toolin	toolivuiʹm
Abessive	tooltää	toolitää
Essive	tollân
Partitive	tollâd
Possessive forms Singular Dual Plural 1st person — — — 2nd person — — — 3rd person — — —

• Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008), Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages‎^[3], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

From Proto-Samic *tolë, from Proto-Uralic *tule.

toll

1. fire

• Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008), Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages‎^[4], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland