(a) A tax, levy, fee, toll; payment, dues; also, tribute; also fig.; ~ and tak, tak and ~; taken ~, to receive a toll; also, cause (someone's) death [quot. ?a1475]; (b) the action of collecting tolls; (c) gain, advantage.

Law (a) In royal and official grants: the right to charge tolls for various imports, products, passages, sales, etc.; ~ and teme, market and ~; etc.; (b) the jurisdiction in which a toll is levied; (c) the word 'tol' designating an exemption from paying tolls on goods bought and sold.

In cpds. & combs.: ~ ale, ?payments made at the time of the assize of bread and ale; ~ both, q.v.; ~ corn, payment in grain for grinding at a mill; ~ fat, a container for grain taken as a toll; also, a measure of half a bushel; ~ fre [OE toll-frēo], exempt from paying tolls; also, the right of exemption from paying a toll at a mill [quot. 1277]; ~ gaderere, one who collects taxes or tolls; ~ hop, a unit of measure taken as a tax; ~ hous, a tollbooth, custom house; ?also, a town hall; ~ man-scot, ?some kind of payment to a tax collector; ~ pote, a toll for brewing beer; ~ reve, an officer appointed to collect tolls at a city gate; ~ sester, a toll on the brewing and selling of beer, usu. paid with sesters, or measures, of beer; ~ setle [OE toll-setle], a tollbooth; ~ shire, the office of taking tolls; ~ stok, ?a toll on timber; ~ teme, ?a fee for pasturing livestock; ~ trei, a fixed toll of two bushels of salt; gavel ~, gavel toll, a fee for anchorage [see also gavel n.(1) 1.(c)]; strem (tin, water, etc.) ~ [see strem n. 1.(e), tin n.(1) (b), etc.]; thurgh ~, q.v.

?Wrongful taxation; ?error through misunderstanding of OF tolte 'robbery, theft' as 'tax'.

In surnames and place names [see Smith PNElem.2.181].