Definition

Noun: 1. A small building or booth at a tollgate where a toll collector collects fees from users of a road, bridge, or tunnel: A tollbooth is a structure where drivers stop to pay a charge for passage.

Usage

The word "tollbooth" is used to describe the specific physical structure where tolls are paid. It is a compound noun formed from "toll" (a fee) and "booth" (a small, enclosed structure).

Examples

• Noun:
  • We stopped at the tollbooth to pay the bridge fee.
  • The new highway has electronic toll collection, so there are no traditional tollbooths.
  • There was a long line of cars waiting at the tollbooth.

Advanced Usage

• "To man a tollbooth": To work as the toll collector inside a tollbooth.
  • He manned a tollbooth on the interstate for twenty years.
• "Tollbooth plaza": A larger area containing multiple tollbooths for different lanes (e.g., cash lanes, electronic toll lanes).
  • Traffic slows down as it approaches the tollbooth plaza.

Variants and Related Words

• Tollgate (noun): The gate or barrier at a toll road which is raised after the toll is paid. Often used interchangeably with "tollbooth," though "tollgate" can refer more specifically to the barrier itself.
• Toll plaza (noun): A wider area with multiple tollbooths and lanes.
• Toll collector (noun): The person who collects the tolls at a tollbooth.

Synonyms

• Tollhouse: A less common synonym for tollbooth.
• Toll station: A term emphasizing the location as a point where tolls are collected.

Notes on Different Meanings

• The provided reference from the English-Vietnamese dictionary lists an archaic, historical meaning from Scotland: "a jail, a prison." This meaning is obsolete in modern English and is not the primary definition. In contemporary usage, "tollbooth" exclusively refers to the booth for collecting road fees. The archaic term is sometimes spelled "tolbooth."

Noun

1. a booth at a tollgate where the toll collector collects tolls