take its/a toll
toll
verb[ I or T ]
uk /təʊl/ us /toʊl/
to (cause a large bell to) ring slowly and repeatedly: （使）缓慢而反复地鸣响
In the distance, a church bell tolled the hour (= showed the time by ringing).远处传来教堂报时的钟声。

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Sounds made by objects, movement or impact
bang around
bleep
boop
choo-choo
chuff
clap along
click away
honk
peal
resonance
rumble
spit
squeak
susurrus
swoosh
thrum
thunk
tick-tock
ticking
whisper

toll | American Dictionary

toll
noun
us/toʊl/

tollnoun (MONEY)

[ C ]
an amount of money that you have to pay to travel along some main roads, to cross bridges, etc., or to make telephone calls over long distances:
They’re raising the bridge toll to $5.00.
The number you dialed is a toll call – please deposit an additional fifty cents.

tollnoun (SUFFERING)

[ U ]
a high degree of suffering or damage:
In addition to the physical destruction caused by the flooding, the emotional toll on its victims was immense.
toll
verb[ I/T ]
us/toʊl/

tollverb[I/T] (RING)

(of a large bell) to ring slowly and repeatedly, or to cause a large bell to ring in this way:
[ I ]The town hall bell tolled at noon.

toll | Business English

toll
noun
uk /təʊl/us
[ C ] TRANSPORT
an amount of money that you have to pay to use a road or bridge:
Motorists in the region paid more than $11.6 million in tolls last year.
pay/collect a tollVehicles would be fitted with an electronic tag allowing drivers to pay tolls by credit card, over the phone or electronically.
road/bridge/motorway tolls
a toll bridge/highway/motorway
[ C ] INTERNET, COMMUNICATIONS
an amount of money that you have to pay to use the internet or to visit particular websites:
Cable companies must treat all online traffic equally, without imposing higher tolls for certain content.
[ C ] COMMUNICATIONS US
the cost of a long-distance phone call
[ S ]
the total number of bad things or amount of damage that happens as a result of something:
The final toll of bankruptcies for this year is high.
The death toll from the earthquake was over a million.
financial/economic/emotional tollLayoffs carry a large human and financial toll.
 to take its/their toll (on sth/sb)
if something takes its toll, it causes damage:
The recession is taking its toll on small businesses.
The building was once a model of its kind, but years of neglect have taken their toll.
Stress can take a heavy toll on your health.

Examples of toll

toll
They could not issue shares but were enabled by act of parliament to borrow against future tolls.
More specifically, the projects include roads, bridges, ports, tolls, customs facilities and telecommunications.
The state had to determine the legitimacy of the competing claims of lighthouse owners, pensioners, and shipowners to the property of the tolls.
The owners levied tolls on all merchant shipping which made use of the lights, and in many cases grew rich from the proceeds.
Meanwhile, the main tasks of lowranking officers often appear to be collecting tolls from drivers and supplicants, and waiting for something to happen.
Lasers along with intense particle beams are the main tolls to induce high energy density states in matter.
All three face opposition from those who would like to privatize knowledge and charge tolls for its use.
Probably at an earlier date than any other royal assets, tolls could be taken in cash.
If no one knew for whom the bells were tolling, much of their value as information was lost.
On the other hand, despite an annual county aggregate of £30,000 in tolls, the turnpikes were" generally very bad".
High death tolls are still a characteristic of less developed, low-income countries.
Eiffage's "build-operate-transfer" contract certainly provided the company with a major incentive to finish the project as early as possible to begin collecting vehicular tolls.
The abolition of internal customs tolls in 1775 provided a major stimulus.
Policies aimed at decreasing private transportation by means of increased costs include fuel taxes, parking fees, and road tolls in city centers.
The expected death tolls of these projects can therefore be entered into the analysis.
See all examples of toll
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.