| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| toll1 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  t l |
| NOUN: | 1. A fixed charge or tax for a privilege, especially for passage across a bridge or along a road. 2. A charge for a service, such as a long-distance telephone call. 3. An amount or extent of loss or destruction, as of life, health, or property: “Poverty and inadequate health care take their toll on the quality of a community's health” (Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times December 17, 1995). | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: tolled, toll·ing, tolls
1. To exact as a toll. 2. To charge a fee for using (a structure, such as a bridge). | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old English, variant of toln, from Medieval Latin toln um, from Latin teln um, tollbooth, from Greek telneion, from telns, tax collector, from telos, tax. See tel - in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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