Also 6 tolle, 6–7 towle, toul(e, 6–7 (9 dial.) towl, 7 toull, 7–8 tole. [Found in this sense in 15th c.: nothing similar outside Eng. Prob. orig. a particular use of TOLL v.1 sense 3, ‘to pull’; the sense having passed from ‘pull the bell-rope,’ to ‘pull the bell,’ and so to ‘make the bell sound by pulling the rope.’ The variant forms are exactly the same as in TOLL v.1; but no distinct evidence of the transfer of sense from ‘pull’ to ‘ring’ appears in the quots., although these are compatible with it.]
1. trans. To cause (a great bell) to sound by pulling the rope, esp. in order to give an alarm or signal; to ring (a great bell). arch. or rhet.
(Since to toll is said of the bell itself (sense 3) in 1452, the transitive sense must have been in use before that date.)
1494. Fabyan, Chron. (1811), 352. Sir Hughe le Spenser came … & desyred assystence of the fore named constables, the which commaunded the said belle to be tolled.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 284. Syr John went into the market place, and there tolled the common Bell, and then incontinent men and women assembled.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 48. He accusid me of … præsumption for that I tooke uppon me to bid the butler toul the bel.
1684. Foxe’s A. & M., III. 920/1. Let the Bell of the Church of S. German be touled.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3749/4. The Bells were tolled at Caneto, and the Allarm was given on all sides by firing of Guns.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, viii. You run to the porter and tell him to toll the great bell with all his might.
a. 1873. Deutsch, Rem. (1874), 255. The bells were tolled in an irregular and funereal fashion.
† b. absol. or intr. To ring. Obs.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, II. 1592. The same glad tidyng shewed an honest woman Tollyng at the churchedore the sayd day and hour.
2. spec. To cause (a large or deep-toned bell) to give forth a sound repeated at regular intervals by pulling the rope so that the bell swings through a short arc (in contrast to ringing it in full swing), or by striking it with a hammer or the like, or pulling the clapper; esp. for summoning a congregation to church, and b. (now) on the occasion of a death (the passing-bell) or funeral. Also absol. or intr.
1552. Bk. Com. Prayer, Pref. The Curate … shall tolle a bell therto [i.e., to Morning and Evening Prayer] a conuenyente tyme before he begyn, that such as be desposed maye come … to praye wyth hym.
1600. Weakest goeth to Wall, G iij. Heere take the key and toll to Euening prayer.
a. 1604. Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1633), 103. [They] wayted for divine service, they rung the Bell, they tould, they waited long.
1617. Minsheu, Ductor, To toll a Bell, which is to make him strike onely of one side.
c. 1618. Moryson, Itin., IV. V. i. (1903), 480. Some one [bell] (as that of Lincolne Minster) requiring the helpe of many men to toule it, and some dossen or twenty men to ringe it out.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Rhyme Duchess May. Toll slowly.
1868. Denison, Clocks, Watches, & Bells (ed. 5), 364. A large bell may be tolled easily by one man, if it is properly hung…. I should hang a very large bell for tolling only, on wedge shaped gudgeons, so as to move with very little friction, and put a stop to prevent it from being pulled too far.
b. 1526, c. 1600. [see PASSING-BELL].
1635. Cranley, Amanda, 88. My tongue doth faile, goe toule the passing bell.
1782. Cowper, Loss of Royal George, i. Toll for the brave! The brave that are no more! Ibid. (1790), Mother’s Picture, 28. I heard the bell toll’d on thy burial day, I saw the hearse, that bore thee slow away.
1832. Tennyson, Death Old Year, 3. Toll ye the church-bell sad and slow … For the old year lies a-dying.
1901. H. E. Bulwer, Gloss. Techn. Terms Ch. Bells, 37. Tolling, causing a bell—generally the ‘Tenor,’ or one of the heavier bells—to sound a number of times in slow succession, sometimes with marked intervals between every two or three ‘blows,’ to announce a death or funeral.
1905. Harmsworth Encycl., 660/1. The passing bell was tolled when any one was passing out of life. This custom still survives in many parts of Britain, but the bell is now tolled after the death.
3. Said of a bell (also of the ringer): To sound (esp. a knell, etc.) by ringing as in sense 2; also of a clock, to strike (the hour) in a deep tone with slow measured strokes. Cf. KNOLL v.
1452. Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 276. The comone bell shuld toll iii. tollis iiii. tymes.
1651. T. Barker, Art of Angling (1653), 1. This man may come home … and cause the clerk to tole his knell.
1682. Dryden, Dk. Guise, IV. ii. Some crowd the Spires, but most the hallow’d Bells, And softly Toll for Souls departing Knells, Each Chime thou hear’st, a future death foretells.
1750. Gray, Elegy, 1. The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
1771. Beattie, Minstrel, I. xxxix. Slow tolls the village-clock the drowsy hour.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, VI. xxxi. And bells toll’d out their mighty peal, For the departed spirit’s weal. Ibid. (1818), Br. Lamm., xxii[i]. She died just as the clock in the distant village tolled one.
1861. Dutton Cook, P. Foster’s D., i. The clock of St. Paul’s Covent Garden has just tolled out the hour of two.
4. intr. Of a bell: To give forth sounds of this character by being tolled; also quasi-impers. (quot. c. 1729). Also said of a clock striking the hour on a deep-toned bell; in quot. 1826 of the hour.
1551. Hooper, Injunctions, xxiii. Wks. (Parker Soc.), II. 137. In case … any of their friends will demand to have the bell toll while the sick is in extremes.
1592. Kyd, Sp. Trag., III. xii. The Windes blowing, the Belles towling, the Owle shriking,… and the Clocke striking twelue.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. Prol. 15. The Countrey Cocks doe crow, the Clocks doe towle.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., lxi. 257. Then the same bell having tolled three times more, the two Priests descended.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr., I. 189. If I heard the Bell Toull for some that were dead.
c. 1729. in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., VIII. 88. After compline the same day it toled to Chapter.
1745. R. Leveson Gower, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), I. 76. The bells toll for prayers.
1816. J. Wilson, City of Plague, II. ii. 289. By day and night the death-bell tolls, And says, ‘Prepare to die.’
1826. Scott, Woodst., xxxiii. Midnight at length tolled.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks., I. 231. The great bell of St. Peter’s tolled with a deep boom.
b. intr., transf. and fig. To make a sound like the tolling of a bell; to give forth a deep-toned or monotonously repeated note; spec. (Sc.) said of bees before swarming (see TOLLING vbl. sb.2 b).
1747. [see TOLLING vbl. sb.2 b].
1839. Bailey, Festus, xviii. (1852), 265. A thought comes tolling o’er the darkened soul Which we dare hardly guest.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 122. Sullen tolls the far-off river’s flow.
1857. Borrow, Romany Rye, ix. (1858), I. 110. Oh, that’s the cuckoo tolling.
1912. M. Hewlett in Eng. Rev., April, 5. Then in clear sky the thunder tolled Sudden.
5. trans. To announce (a death, etc.) by tolling; to toll for (a dying or dead person).
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 103 (Qo.). His tongue Sounds euer after as a sullen bell, Remembred tolling [Folios knolling] a departing friend.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., IV. Wks. 1856, I. 48. Groning like a bell, That towles departing soules.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., lvii. 10. One set slow bell will seem to toll The passing of the sweetest soul That ever look’d with human eyes.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., xii. (1883), 248. My room-mate thought … it was the bell tolling deaths, and people’s ages, as they do in the country.
6. To summon or dismiss by tolling. Const. in, out, etc.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xxii. § 21. To ring the Masse into England, and to towle Cardinall Poole from Rome.
1683. Dryden, Vind. Dk. Guise, 17. For Conscience or Heavens fear, religious Rules Are all State-bells to toll in pious Fools. Ibid. (1697), Virg. Georg., IV. 277. When hollow Murmurs of their Ev’ning Bells, Dismiss the sleepy Swains, and toll ’em to their Cells.
1819. Keats, Ode Nightingale, viii. Forlorn! the very word is like a bell To toll me back from thee to my sole self.
1841. Thackeray, Gt. H. Diamond, iv. As she spoke, the bells were just tolling the people out of church.
b. absol. or intr. Toll in: to summon a congregation to church by tolling (said of a person, or of the bell); esp. in reference to the change from ordinary ringing or chiming a few minutes before the commencement of worship.
1710. J. B., Lett. to Sacheverell, 13. The Bells were Tolling in.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 372, ¶ 1. I was tolling in to Prayers at Eleven in the Morning.
1860. Warter, Sea-board, II. 455. I had no time to lose, as the bell was tolling in.
