Library / English Dictionary

TOLL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Value measured by what must be given or done or undergone to obtain something

Example:

what price glory?

Synonyms:

cost; price; toll

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("toll" is a kind of...):

value (the quality (positive or negative) that renders something desirable or valuable)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "toll"):

death toll (the number of deaths resulting from some particular cause such as an accident or a battle or a natural disaster)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The sound of a bell being struck

Example:

she heard the distant toll of church bells

Synonyms:

bell; toll

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("toll" is a kind of...):

sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "toll"):

knell (the sound of a bell rung slowly to announce a death or a funeral or the end of something)

angelus; angelus bell (the sound of a bell rung in Roman Catholic churches to announce the time when the Angelus should be recited)

Derivation:

toll (ring slowly)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A fee levied for the use of roads or bridges (used for maintenance)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("toll" is a kind of...):

fee (a fixed charge for a privilege or for professional services)

Derivation:

toll (charge a fee for using)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Ring slowly

Example:

For whom the bell tolls

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "toll" is one way to...):

knell; ring (make (bells) ring, often for the purposes of musical edification)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

toll (the sound of a bell being struck)

toller (a person who rings church bells (as for summoning the congregation))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Charge a fee for using

Example:

Toll the bridges into New York City

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "toll" is one way to...):

impose; levy (impose and collect)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

toll (a fee levied for the use of roads or bridges (used for maintenance))

Credits

 Context examples: 

In the deadly 2018 earthquake in the Indonesian city of Palu, intense shaking changed solid ground into a landslide of flowing mud, multiplying the death toll and economic impact.

(NASA Map Reveals a New Landslide Risk Factor, NASA)

To have a full stomach, to doze lazily in the sunshine—such things were remuneration in full for his ardours and toils, while his ardours and tolls were in themselves self-remunerative.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was three o'clock; the church bell tolled as I passed under the belfry: the charm of the hour lay in its approaching dimness, in the low-gliding and pale-beaming sun.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The study of 2.8 million people from anonymized patient records presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Glasgow gives an indication of the extent to which obesity can take a toll on people’s health in the real world – as opposed to clinical trials.

(Middle Age Severely Obese People More Likely to Die Early, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

After the plains of southern Kenya experienced a severe drought in 2009 that took a terrible toll on wildlife, researchers looked at how 50 wild baboons coped with the drought, and whether the conditions they faced in infancy played a role.

(Born during a drought: Bad news for baboons, NSF)

Five times we have had to beg and pray ere we could pass. Twice I have paid toll to the wardens of the road.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Again I looked out: we were passing a church; I saw its low broad tower against the sky, and its bell was tolling a quarter; I saw a narrow galaxy of lights too, on a hillside, marking a village or hamlet.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As he answered me his face grew stern, and he said in quite a different tone:—Oh, it was the grim irony of it all—this so lovely lady garlanded with flowers, that looked so fair as life, till one by one we wondered if she were truly dead; she laid in that so fine marble house in that lonely churchyard, where rest so many of her kin, laid there with the mother who loved her, and whom she loved; and that sacred bell going 'Toll! toll! toll!' so sad and slow; and those holy men, with the white garments of the angel, pretending to read books, and yet all the time their eyes never on the page; and all of us with the bowed head.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

On Saturday, aftershocks of a powerful earthquake with reported magnitude 6.3 that struck southern Philippines on Wednesday night have increased the death toll of the extended event from five people to six due to a massive landslide following a 5.0 magnitude aftershock on Saturday.

(Aftershocks increase death toll of magnitude 6.3 earthquake in southern Philippines, Wikinews)

A strange thrill it gave to the young squire to see the well-remembered white dress once more, and to hear the measured tolling of the deep vespers bell.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)