tax
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- //tæks//
Money or goods collected by a government (or an entity to whom the government has delegated this power, e.g. in tax farming) to fund itself and its services, for example by levying a charge on income, purchases (sales), property or harvest, other than that money which is collected by the government in exchange for specific goods (e.g. the purchase of surplus vehicles).
noun
- 1
Money or goods collected by a government (or an entity to whom the government has delegated this power, e.g. in tax farming) to fund itself and its services, for example by levying a charge on income, purchases (sales), property or harvest, other than that money which is collected by the government in exchange for specific goods (e.g. the purchase of surplus vehicles).
[They paid a] "mushroom tax" in addition to their regular tax of butter and meat. They had to give 1 dre of dried mushrooms annually to the district administrative centres.
The [General Farm] organization collected a tax on salt (gabelle) and another on alcohol and tobacco (aide), along with customs duties (traites) and duties on goods entering Paris from elsewhere in France (entrées). Evasion of all of these taxes through smugglign and other fraud was epidemic[…]
In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
- 2
A charge (of money, food, labor, etc) collected by a person, organization, etc; something required (exacted) from someone who is (really or notionally) under the control of the taxer, such as a contribution or service.
Flie far from hence All private taxes, immodest phrases, What e'r may but shew like vicious.
Scrambled egg with cheese [...] careful with the cheese here because it is the main reason for Roxie's runs... [but] We pay a lot of cheese tax in the house [i.e., when we eat cheese, the dog demands to also be given some].
- 3
figurativeA burdensome demand
a heavy tax on time or health
In the expectation that such would be the case, I came but slightly attended, sending most of my people with the heavy baggage by sea to the Indus, and I took every precaution to render the tax of my support as light as possible, by furnishing a memorandum of the number of persons composing my suite, and limiting the amount of supplies each should receive.
The extent of the traffic is a tax on the existing yard in the area at Frodingham, the busiest in the District.
Etymology
From Middle English taxe, from Middle French taxe, from Medieval Latin taxa, from Latin taxō (“to appraise, value, estimate; (medieval) to tax”). Doublet of task. Displaced native Old English gafol, which was also the word for “tribute” and “rent”.
verb
- 1
To impose and collect a tax from (a person or company).
Some think to tax the wealthy is the fairest.
Taxing the food and chemical industries, which make billions off our food consumption, could be another way to generate revenue for the program.
- 2
To impose and collect a tax on (something).
Some think to tax wealth is destructive of a private sector.
- 3
To make excessive demands on.
Do not tax my patience.
The people of the southeasterly clusters—concerning whom, however, but little is known—have a bad name as cannibals; and for that reason their hospitality is seldom taxed by the mariner.
The heavy freight traffic which shares the double line between Paddington and Wolverhampton with the passenger traffic has taxed the ingenuity of the timetable planners.
But patent applications are increasingly accompanied by volumes and volumes of data on DVD, which taxes the resources of the patent office.
- 4
To accuse.
- 5
To examine accounts in order to allow or disallow items.
Etymology
From Middle English taxen, from Anglo-Norman taxer (“to impose a tax”), from Latin taxāre (“to handle, to censure, to appraise, to compute”).
Forms
- plural
- taxes
- past tense
- taxed
- past participle
- taxed
- present participle
- taxing
- third person singular
- taxes
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