Meaning and synonyms of 'toll' in 'death toll' [closed]

Question

As a foreign locutor..., the word toll seems weird in the following sentence in The New York Times:

Death Toll Rises From Wind and Flooding

Automatic translations do not help very much : without, costs, number, call, toll ?

Could you give me other examples of sentences with the word toll, or provide synonyms for it?

It's a dead metaphor. It's a nice short way of saying 'how many people died'.
@Mitch: In the expression "funeral toll" cited by mhoran_psprep, is it a tax/charge or something else ?
@Trimok Read through the dictionary definition, thesaurus entry, and a nice run down on the etymology of death toll.
'Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee' (John Donne).
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee. (John Donne)

StoneyB · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-30 17:54:31Z

Toll in this case means cost or count. It is the count of the number that died from the storm.

You will also see it referring to money; many times it is a synonym for tariff or tax:

Toll can also refer to bells: a funeral toll.

closed as general reference by David Wallace, StoneyB, Zairja, MετάEd, waiwai933♦ Oct 31 '12 at 4:49