/ təʊl; NAmE toʊl/ noun , verb
■ noun
1.
[ C ] money that you pay to use a particular road or bridge :
motorway tolls
a toll road / bridge
➡ note at rate
2.
[ C , usually sing. ] the amount of damage or the number of deaths and injuries that are caused in a particular war, disaster, etc. :
The official death toll has now reached 7 000.
the war's growing casualty toll
3.
[ sing. ] the sound of a bell ringing with slow regular strokes
4.
[ C ] ( NAmE ) a charge for a telephone call that is calculated at a higher rate than a local call
•
IDIOMS
- take a heavy toll (on sb/sth) | take its toll (on sb/sth)
■ verb
when a bell tolls or sb tolls it, it is rung slowly many times, especially as a sign that sb has died :
[ v ]
The Abbey bell tolled for those killed in the war.
[ vn ]
The bell tolled the hour.
( figurative )
The revolution tolled the death knell (= signalled the end) for the Russian monarchy.
••
WORD ORIGIN
noun senses 1 to 2 and noun sense 4 Old English (denoting a charge, tax, or duty), from medieval Latin toloneum , alteration of late Latin teloneum , from Greek telōnion toll house, from telos tax. Sense 2 (late 19th cent.) arose from the notion of paying a toll or tribute in human lives (to an adversary or to death).
verb and noun sense 3 late Middle English : probably a special use of dialect toll drag, pull .