TAX • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tax

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noun

Tax n.

A charge, especially a pecuniary burden which is imposed by authority. Specifically:

(a)

A charge or burden laid upon persons or property for the support of a government. "A farmer of taxes is, of all creditors, proverbially the most rapacious."

(b)

Especially, the sum laid upon specific things, as upon polls, lands, houses, income, etc.; as, a land tax; a window tax; a tax on carriages, and the like. Note: Taxes are annual or perpetual, direct or indirect, etc.

(c)

A sum imposed or levied upon the members of a society to defray its expenses.

A task exacted from one who is under control; a contribution or service, the rendering of which is imposed upon a subject.

A disagreeable or burdensome duty or charge; as, a heavy tax on time or health.

Charge; censure. (Obs.)

A lesson to be learned; a task. (Obs.)

Tax cart, a spring cart subject to a low tax. (Eng.)

Synonyms: Impost; tribute; contribution; duty; toll; rate; assessment; exaction; custom; demand.

verb

Tax v. t. (past & past part. taxed; pres. part. taxing)

To subject to the payment of a tax or taxes; to impose a tax upon; to lay a burden upon; especially, to exact money from for the support of government. "We are more heavily taxed by our idleness, pride, and folly than we are taxed by government."

(Law) To assess, fix, or determine judicially, the amount of; as, to tax the cost of an action in court.

To charge; to accuse; also, to censure; often followed by with, rarely by of before an indirect object; as, to tax a man with pride. "I tax you, you elements, with unkindness." "Men's virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes." "Fear not now that men should tax thine honor."

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Etymology of 'Tax'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tax" Quotes from Famous Books

... their chief aim slaves and cattle; whilst, in the second instance, slavery keeps them ever fighting and reducing their numbers. The government revenues are levied, on a very small scale, exclusively for the benefit of the chief and his grey-beards. For instance, as a sort of land-tax, the chief has a right to drink free from the village brews of pombe (a kind of beer made by fermentation), which are made in turn by all the villagers successively. In case of an elephant being killed, he also takes a share of the meat, and claims one of its tusks as his right; ...

— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

... first two weeks left her. Though Kut-le still fastened her to the saddle by the waist strap and rested her for a short time every hour or so during the night's ride, the hours in the saddle ceased to tax her strength. She was surprised to find that she could eat—eat the ...

— The Heart of the Desert - Kut-Le of the Desert • Honore Willsie Morrow

... and get effects. She would know how to depress a rat-terrier with it and make a lap-dog look sorry he came. But that is not the best one; the best one was Laboratory. My mother could organize a Trust on that one that would skin the tax-collars off the whole herd. The laboratory was not a book, or a picture, or a place to wash your hands in, as the college president's dog said—no, that is the lavatory; the laboratory is quite different, ...

— The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1 • Various

... her strength, and Avery's care now centred more upon Jeanie than her mother. Though the child had recovered from her accident, she had not been really well all the winter, and the cold spring seemed to tax her strength to the uttermost. Tudor still dropped in at intervals, but he said little, and his manner did not encourage Avery to question him. Privately she was growing anxious about Jeanie, and she wished ...

— The Bars of Iron • Ethel May Dell

... a Tax upon the Body, it is understood to be layd upon every member proportionably to his particular adventure in the Company. For there is in this case no other common stock, but what is ...

— Leviathan • Thomas Hobbes

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