The word toll has several meanings:

1. A fee charged for using a road, bridge, or tunnel. When your family drives across certain bridges or highways, you might stop at a toll booth to pay money for the privilege of using that route. These fees help pay for building and maintaining the infrastructure. Before electronic payment systems, toll collectors would stand in small booths and accept cash from each passing car.
2. The sound of a bell ringing slowly and solemnly, usually to mark something serious like a death or funeral. Church bells toll with deep, measured rings that echo across a town. This slow, deliberate ringing is different from the cheerful clanging of wedding bells or school bells.
3. The negative impact or cost of something, especially over time. If you stay up late every night, lack of sleep will eventually take its toll on your health and grades. A difficult year might take a toll on someone's energy or mood. When people talk about “the toll of war,” they mean all the suffering and loss it causes. This meaning captures how some experiences gradually wear us down, like how ocean waves slowly erode a cliff.

As a verb, toll can mean to charge a fee, or to ring slowly and solemnly.