tollgate

1 5.1

A gate across a road where drivers pay a fee to pass

noun
/ˈtoʊlˌɡeɪt/

: peaje

Exit the autostrada tollgate at 9:00 a. m. and drive south at exactly 80 kilometers an hour.

Examples

Neither one of us stopped shaking until we had passed the tollgate plaza and were back on the World's Longest Bridge, with New Orleans glowing ahead, just over the horizon.

Fiction book (2000)
He's stopping at the tollgate.

Dark Passage (1947)
Tollgate Road, near Casterbridge, England: January 1859.

Fiction book (1998)
We're approaching the tollgate.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
A few private turnpike companies built stone-surfaced roads controlled by tollgates at regular intervals.

Academic text (1998)
As we drove closer, we could see the tollgate where we would need to pay for the bridge.
The long line of cars stopped at the tollgate, waiting to pay the fee for the road ahead.
Before entering the expressway, make sure to have cash ready for the tollgate ahead.

Synonyms

turnpike

vstollgate

Archaic

1 9.8

A gate across a road where people paid a toll to pass

is the modern or general term for similar barriers beyond historical periods

tollbar

vstollgate

8.1

A bar across a road or bridge that lifts after payment

is a more general operated barrier, not specifically a liftable bar

How Big

toll plaza

1 3.2

tollbooth

11 2.7

tollgate

1 5.1

tollbar

8.1

Surface Forms

tollgate singular

tollgates plural

Morphology

tollgate = toll + gate (transparent) = toll + gate

Clear compound of 'toll' + 'gate' where the gate is specifically for collecting a toll, so the parts directly predict the meaning.

Etymology

The word tollgate comes from two simple parts: toll, meaning a small 'fee' you must pay, and gate, meaning a 'barrier' you pass through. That's why a tollgate is the gate on a road or bridge where drivers stop to pay before they go through.