toll

views updated May 21 2018

toll1 / tōl/ • n. 1. a charge payable for permission to use a particular bridge or road: turnpike tolls | [as adj.] a toll bridge. ∎  a charge for a long-distance telephone call.2. [in sing.] the number of deaths, casualties, or injuries arising from particular circumstances, such as a natural disaster, conflict, or accident: the toll of dead and injured mounted. ∎  the cost or damage resulting from something: the environmental toll of the policy has been high.• v. [tr.] [usu. as n.] (tolling) charge a toll for the use of (a bridge or road): the report advocates expressway tolling.PHRASES: take its toll (or take a heavy toll) have an adverse effect, esp. so as to cause damage, suffering, or death: years of pumping iron have taken their toll on his body.toll2 • v. [intr.] (of a bell) sound with a slow, uniform succession of strokes, as a signal or announcement: the bells of the cathedral began to toll for evening service. ∎  [tr.] cause (a bell) to make such a sound. ∎  (of a bell) announce or mark (the time, a service, or a person's death): the bell of St. Mary's began to toll the curfew.• n. [in sing.] a single ring of a bell.

Tolls Exemption Act

views updated May 29 2018

TOLLS EXEMPTION ACT

TOLLS EXEMPTION ACT, an act of Congress, 24 August 1912, exempting American vessels in coast-wise traffic from the payment of tolls on the Panama Canal. The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 had provided that the canal should be free and open to the ships of all nations without discrimination, so the act raised a serious moral and legal question. President Woodrow Wilson, on 5 March 1914, eloquently requested repeal as a matter of sound diplomacy and international good faith. Prominent Republicans seconded his efforts, and the act was repealed a few weeks later. Congress, however, expressly denied any relinquishment of the right to grant exemptions to coastwise shipping.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Collin, Richard H. Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean: The Panama Canal, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Latin American Context. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990.

W. A.Robinson/c. w.

See alsoHay-Pauncefote Treaties ; Panama Canal ; Panama Canal Treaty .

toll

views updated May 23 2018

toll1 payment for a privilege OE.; charge for a right of passage XV. OE. toll = OHG. zol (G. zoll), ON. tollr m., with by-forms OE. toln (†tolne XI–XV), OS. tolna fem. — medL. tolōneum, alt. of late L. telōneum — Gr. telónion toll-house, f. telónēs collector of taxes, f. télos toll, tax.

Toll

views updated May 14 2018

TOLL

A sum of money paid for the right to use a road, highway, or bridge. To postpone or suspend. For example, to toll astatute of limitationsmeans to postpone the running of the time period it specifies.

toll

views updated May 21 2018

toll2 (of a bell or the ringer) give forth a sound from a bell repeated at regular intervals XV. perh. spec. use of toll pull, usu. fig. entice, OE. *tollian, rel. to fortyllan seduce.

Toll

views updated May 17 2018

Toll

a clump of trees, 1644.