Also 4 -ere, 4–5 -are, 4–6 -ar, 6 towler. [OE. tollere, f. TOLL sb.1 + -ER1.]
1. One who takes toll, a toll-collector (now rare); † a tax-gatherer, ‘publican’ (obs.); toller of the sack, a miller.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 510. Hu ðæs caseres tolleras axodon Petrus. Ibid., II. 468. God … hine awende of tollere to apostole.
c. 1050. Supp. Ælfric’s Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 171/29. Telonearius, tolnere vel tollere.
13[?]. Cursor M., 25804 (Cott.). Matheu was first toller And siþen cristes gospeller.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, x. (Mathou), 9. In þe tolbuth set lewy, Þat as a tollare þare wes sate.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. Prol. 220. Taillours and tynkeres & tolleres in marketes.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, III. iv. (1883), 108. The customers, tollers, and resseyuours of rentes & of money.
c. 1510. Barclay, Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570), G iv. No towler, catchpoll nor customer No broker nor botcher, no somner nor sergeaunt.
c. 1550. Cheke, Matt. ix. 10. Mani tollers and sinners sat doun also with Jesus and with his discipils.
1591. Greene, Conny-Catch., II. Wks. (Grosart), X. 79. The Priggar when he hath stollen a horse … bringeth to the touler … two honest men, eyther apparelled like citizens, or plain country yeomen, and they … offer to depose, that they know the horse to be his.
1734. A. Shields, J. Renwick (1827), 148. One of the Tollers or Waiters discovered the House.
1831. Lincoln Herald, 6 May. Surely a tailor or shoemaker is as good as a printer’s devil or a toller of the sack.
2. An apparatus for separating the toll of grain: = toll-collector (c) (TOLL sb.1 3).
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Supp., Toller. (Grist Mill.) The Tom Thumb toller is an automatic divider of the toll from the grist.
