tax
/tæks/ noun, verb
- noun 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 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.
- noun (figurative, uncountable) A burdensome demand “a heavy tax on time or health”
- verb (transitive) To impose and collect a tax from (a person or company). “Some think to tax the wealthy is the fairest.”
- verb (transitive) To impose and collect a tax on (something). “Some think to tax wealth is destructive of a private sector.”
- verb (transitive) To make excessive demands on. “Do not tax my patience.”
- verb (transitive) To accuse.
- verb (transitive) To examine accounts in order to allow or disallow items.
Synonyms
impost tribute contribution duty toll rate assessment exaction custom demand levy taxation revenue enhancement assess task
Antonyms
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”.
From Middle English taxen, from Anglo-Norman taxer (“to impose a tax”), from Latin taxāre (“to handle, to censure, to appraise, to compute”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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.
- noun A task exacted from one who is under control; a contribution or service, the rendering of which is imposed upon a subject.
- verb 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.
- verb To assess, fix, or determine judicially, the amount of; as, to tax the cost of an action in court.
Etymology [F. taxe, fr. taxer to tax, L. taxare to touch, sharply, to feel, handle, to censure, value, estimate, fr. tangere, tactum, to touch. See Tangent, and cf. Task, Taste.]
Etymology [Cf. F. taxer. See Tax, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tax”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details