toll.
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.
Meaning & usage
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.
Loss or damage incurred through a disaster.
The war has taken its toll on the people.
A fee paid by the owner of materials or other goods for processing such goods, as under a tolling agreement.
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.
A tollbooth.
We will be replacing some manned tolls with high-speed device readers.
A liberty to buy and sell within the bounds of a manor.
A portion of grain taken by a miller as a compensation for grinding.
Where this word comes from
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 *del- (“calculation, fraud”). 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”).
To impose a fee for the use of.
Once more it is proposed to toll the East River bridges.
To levy a toll on (someone or something).
To take as a toll.
To pay a toll or tallage.
Where this word comes from
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 *del- (“calculation, fraud”). 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”).
The act or sound of ringing a bell, especially slowly, as with a church or cemetery bell.
Where this word comes from
Probably the same as Etymology 3. Possibly related to or influenced by toil
To ring (a bell) slowly and repeatedly.
Martin tolled the great bell every day.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls.
To summon by ringing a bell.
The ringer tolled the workers back from the fields for vespers.
To announce by ringing a bell.
The bells tolled the King’s death.
To make a sound as if made by a bell.
Where this word comes from
Probably the same as Etymology 3. Possibly related to or influenced by toil
To draw; pull; tug; drag.
To tear in pieces.
To draw; entice; invite; allure.
Hou many virgins shal she tolle and drawe to þe Lord - "Life of Our Lady"
To lure with bait; tole (especially, fish and animals).
Where this word comes from
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”).
To take away; to vacate; to annul.
To suspend.
The statute of limitations defense was tolled as a result of the defendant’s wrongful conduct.
Where this word comes from
From Latin tollō (“to lift up”).
simple past and past participle of tell
I done toll you for the last time.
Where this word comes from
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Try it on your idea.
toll has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.