Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TOLL, v.i.² [W. tol, tolo, a loud sound, a din; Pers. قَاليدَنْ talidan, to sound, to ring. We see that W. tawl, supra, is a throw or cast, a driving, and this is the radical sense of sound.]

To sound or ring, as a bell, with strokes uniformly repeated at intervals, as at funerals, or in calling assemblies, or to announce the death of a person. Now sink in sorrows with a tolling bell. Pope.