Word Direct Answers

What does "tax" mean?

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

Additional senses

  1. 2.A disagreeable or burdensome duty or charge; as, a heavy tax on time or health.
  2. 3.Charge; censure. [Obs.] Clarendon.
  3. 4.A lesson to be learned; a task. [Obs.] Johnson. Tax cart, a spring cart subject to a low tax. [Eng.]
  4. 5.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. Franklin.
  5. 6.(Law) To assess, fix, or determine judicially, the amount of; as, to tax the cost of an action in court.
  6. 7.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. Shak. Men's virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes. Dryden. Fear not now that men should tax thine honor. M. Arnold.

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