death toll

death toll (plural death tolls)

1. The number of dead as a result of a war, natural disaster or other incident.
   • 1866, John Watts, The Facts of the Cotton Famine, page 232:

     Food, clothing, bedding, and fire, were supplied in sufficient proportions to maintain life and health; and the three years of severe suffering passed over the cotton districts without any sensible increase of disease, and without increasing the frequency of the death toll.

   • 2011, Angela Mason, Death Rides the Sky: The Story of the 1925 Tri-State Tornado:

     Fascinated by the fact that the death toll of this singular storm was the fifth highest on record as regards overall effects/death tolls for a natural disaster in the United States in the 20th century […]