Etimology
From Middle English taxe, from Middle French taxe, from Medieval Latin taxa. Doublet of task. Displaced native Old English gafol, which was also the word for "tribute" and "rent."
noun
tax (countable and uncountable, plural taxes)
Money paid to the government other than for transaction-specific goods and services.
(figurative, uncountable) A burdensome demand.
A task exacted from one who is under control; a contribution or service, the rendering of which is imposed upon a subject.
(obsolete) charge; censure
Examples
Synonyms: impost, tribute, contribution, duty, toll, rate, assessment, exaction, custom, demand, levy
Antonym: subsidy
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.
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.
Flie far from hence All private taxes, immodest phrases, What e'r may but shew like vicious.
Related words
hyponyms
carbon tax
church tax
corporation tax
customs, customs duty
duty
estate tax
excise, excise tax
flat tax
gift tax
goods and services tax
gross receipts tax
head tax
income tax
inheritance tax
land tax
poll tax
property tax
personal property tax
quindecim
quinzieme
real property tax
sales tax
sin tax
sumptuary tax
tarriff
transfer tax
use tax
utilities tax
value added tax
coordinate terms
fine
license fee
penalty
seigniorage
user charge
Etimology
From Middle English taxen, from Anglo-Norman taxer (“to impose a tax”), from Latin taxāre, present active infinitive of taxō (“I handle”, “I censure”, “I appraise”, “I compute”).
verb
tax (third-person singular simple present taxes, present participle taxing, simple past and past participle taxed)
(transitive) To impose and collect a tax from (a person or company).
(transitive) To impose and collect a tax on (something).
(transitive) To make excessive demands on.
(transitive) To accuse.
(transitive) To examine accounts in order to allow or disallow items.
Examples
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.
Some think to tax wealth is destructive of a private sector.
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.