toll

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
toll1 /təʊl/

▶noun

• 1 a charge payable to use a bridge or road.

  ■ N. Amer. a charge for a long-distance telephone call.

• 2 the number of deaths or casualties arising from an accident, disaster, etc.

• 3 an adverse effect.

▶verb (usu. as noun tolling) charge a toll for the use of (a bridge or road).

– phrases
take its toll (or take a heavy toll) have an adverse effect.

– origin OE, from med. L. toloneum, alt. of late L. teloneum, from Gk telōnion ‘toll house’, from telos ‘tax’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
toll2 /təʊl/

▶verb (with reference to a bell) sound or cause to sound with a slow, uniform succession of strokes.

■ (of a bell) announce (the time, a service, or a person's death) in this way.

▶noun a single ring of a bell.

– origin ME: prob. a special use of dial. toll ‘drag, pull’.