toll-booth, tolbooth, n. Chiefly Sc., exc. (more recently) in sense 1.
(ˈtəʊlbuːð, -buːθ, ˈtɒlbuːθ)
Forms: 4 tolboþe, 4–6 tolbothe, tolbuth, 5 tolboythe, tolle buthe, tolbuthe, (towboth, -buthe), 5–7 tolbuith, 6 tolboth, -boith, -buyth, tollboothe, -bouthe, (towbuyth, 7 toole-, towle-, tolebooth), 6– (arch. or Sc.) tolbooth, 7– tollbooth, toll-booth.
[f. toll n.1 + booth, lit. the booth, stall, or shed of the tax-collector. Cf. Ger. zollbude, Da. toldbod, custom-house.]
1. A booth, stall, or office at which tolls, duties, or customs are collected; a custom-house; spec. a booth at which the toll for the right of passage across a bridge, along a road, etc., is collected.
| [1314–15 Rolls of Parlt. I. 331/1 Mandetur..Ballivis de Tolbotha de Lenne.] 13.. Propr. Sanct. (Vernon MS.) in Herrig Archiv LXXXI. 309/4 Matheu cald was his name, In a Tol-boþe sat þe same. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints x. (Mathou) 8 Quhare in þe tolbuth set lewy. 1381 Rolls of Parlt. III. 108/1 Alerent jeske a Tolbothe du dite ville [Canterbury]. 1382 Wyclif Matt. ix. 9 He seiȝ a man sittynge in a tolbothe, Matheu by name. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 804/8 Hoc toloneum, a tolbothe. 1483 Cath. Angl. 390/1 A Tolle buthe. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 1186/1 The tolboth in the market of Durham all of stone. 1587 Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.) III. 116 Excepte onelie of the tollboothe the toll and stallages of Manchester. 1633 Bp. Hall Hard Texts, N.T. 14 Sitting in the Tole⁓booth of the Publicans to gather up the rents. 1756 Nugent Gr. Tour, Germ. II. 133 There is here a great toll-booth, or custom-house, where toll is paid for..black cattle that pass from Jutland into Germany. 1973 Times 8 May (Hong Kong Suppl.) p. iii/9 Fourteen toll booths can be seen from the control room. 1978 D. Devine Sunk without Trace xxvi. 243 The car halted at the toll. He jumped out..to question the man in the toll-booth. |
2. A town hall or guildhall.
Often (esp. in Scotland) comprehending senses 1 and 3.
| 1440 Sc. Acts Jas. II (1814) II. 32/2 The Consale Generale haldyn at Strivilyn in the tolbuthe of that ilk. 1467 Dunfermline Regr. (Bann. Cl.) 358 Þis inquisicion made at Berwik vpoun twede in þe tolbuth of þe samyn. 1593 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 817/2 Ad edificandum pretorium, carcerem domumque ponderum et telonium (lie tolbuith, prissoun, weyhous and customehous)..ad publicos usus dicti burgi. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. x. (S.T.S.) II. 400 Publiklie be heraldis..scho [the Queen] commandis, that Johne Knox, Wilok, Douglas, and Paul Meffen, compeiring in the Tolbuith of Striuiling in Judgment to mak ansuer. 1665 J. Buck in Peacock Stat. Cambridge (1841) App. B. 54 Upon Michaelmass day the Vice Chancellor with some of the Heads and Doctors..goe to the Toll Booth in their Scarlet Gowns, there to give the Maior his oath. 1820 Lingard Hist. Eng. IV. ii. 74 Margaret..offered to conduct her son (he was only in his twelfth year) to the tolbooth of Edinburgh, and to announce by proclamation that he had assumed the government. 1828 Craven Gloss., Toll-booth... In this district it signifies a Town Hall, where the Court Baron is held, and the rents and amercements due to the Lord are paid. 1900 J. Kirkwood United Presbyterians Ayr. iii. 29 They had to perform the ceremony in the Tolbooth of Irvine. |
3. A town prison, a gaol.
(Formerly usually consisting of cells under the town hall.)
| c 1470 Henry Wallace vii. 202 A bauk was knyt all full of rapys keyne; Sic a towboth sen syn was neuir seyne. c 1520 Nisbet N.T. in Scots, Acts xxiii. 35 He comandit him to be kepit in the tolbuth of Herode. 1535 Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) I. 432 The said universitie [Cambridge] hath hertefor had..the use of the kings prisoune there called the Tolbothe. 1581 N. Burne Disput. in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.) 109 Being impresoned first in the Castel of Sanctandrois, and nixt in the tolbuith of Edinburgh. 1655 Fuller Hist. Camb. vii. §25 The Maior refused to give them the keys of the Toll-booth, or Town-prison. 1661 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 2), Tolbuyth, the name of the chief Prison at Edenburgh. 1738 (title) Captain Porteous's Ghost, giving an Account how he was dragged from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, by the outrageous mob, and hung by the neck like a Dog. 1752 J. Louthian Form of Process (ed. 2) 67, I being incarcerate within the said Tolbooth, by Warrant of the Lord Justice-Clerk, for the Crime of Murder alledged committed by me. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. Note C, Since the year 1640..the Tolbooth was occupied as a prison only. 1855 [Burn] Autobiog. Beggar Boy (1859) 6, I am not without some pleasing reminiscences of the gude toun of Hawick, having been boarded and lodged in the tolbooth there for the space of seven days. |
4. attrib.
| 1611 Acc. Bk. W. Wray in Antiquary XXXII. 214 The crosse of stone standing in the toolebooth garth. c 1737 in Scott Hrt. Midl. Note D, One Stoddart,..was charged of haveing boasted publickly, in a smith's shop at Leith, that he had assisted in breaking open the Tolbooth door. 1818 Ibid. iii[i], ‘I would claw down the tolbooth door wi' my nails,’ said Miss Grizel, ‘but I wad be at him [Porteous]’. 1847 Mrs. A. S. Menteath Lays Kirk & Covt. 65 A gleam is waking—more faintly now—Her Tolbooth prison-hold. |
Hence † ˈtolbooth v. (obs. nonce-wd.), to imprison in a toll-booth.
| a 1635 Corbett Poems (1648) 35 (Jas. I's Visit to Cambridge) And well bestow'd he thought his hen, That they might Tolebooth Oxford men. |