tax
Pluraltaxes
Pluraltaxes
- 1Money or goods that a government collects from people and businesses to fund itself and its services, often charged on income, purchases, or property.
The new budget raises tax on tobacco and alcohol.
Workers in higher brackets pay more tax on their earnings.
UsageA tax on something: tax on earnings, a new tax on tobacco. People pay tax or pay taxes; both are common.
Oppositesubsidy
Note
A tax need not be paid in coin. Kunzang Choden's Chilli and Cheese (2008) describes Bhutanese households owing butter, meat and dried mushrooms. Its natural opposite is a subsidy, money flowing the other way.
- 2To make a person or business pay a tax, or to put a tax on goods, income, property, or an activity.
The federal government taxes corporations on their annual profits.
Authorities tax residents according to how much they earn.
UsageThe object can be the payer or the thing charged: tax the wealthy, tax income. Say taxed on profits or earnings.
- 3To place strain on someone or something by demanding more than can easily be given.
The constant deadlines taxed her patience to the limit.
Steep mountain trails tax even experienced hikers.
UsageOften with patience, strength or energy as the object: tax someone's patience. The adjective taxing means tiring: a taxing day.
Similarstrain, test, try, stretch, challenge
Note
The strain this verb describes falls on a capacity rather than a purse: patience, ingenuity, hospitality, the resources of an office. Herman Melville's Omoo (1847) uses the passive with a dry twist: islanders known as cannibals find their hospitality "seldom taxed by the mariner."
- 4A charge of money, food, labor, or the like exacted by a person or organization from someone under their control, such as a required contribution or service.
Rebel commanders imposed a tax on farmers in the territory they held, payable in rice or cash.
Villagers owed a yearly tax of labor to the estate's owner.
UsageWhat is owed follows of: a tax of grain, of labor. Who pays follows on: a tax on farmers.
Note
Here the collector need not be a government at all. A guild, a landlord, even a household pet can exact one, and the control behind the demand may be only notional. Kates Kennery's Pet Cook Book (2023) jokes about paying "cheese tax" when the dog insists on its share. That playful pattern, a noun followed by tax, names whatever must be handed over to keep the peace.
Less common meanings
- 5A burdensome demand that strains the time, energy, or resources of a person or thing.
The long campaign proved a serious tax on the candidate's health.
Endless meetings became a tax on the team's productivity.
UsageUsually followed by on: a tax on your time, health or patience. It can be heavy, serious or real.
Similarstrain, drain, burden, toll
Note
G. Freeman Allen wrote in 1962 that heavy traffic was a tax on the yard at Frodingham. The demand it names is real, but nobody collects it. Its verb partner is to strain or overtax.
- 6To accuse someone of a fault, often confronting them with it directly.
The committee taxed the official with misusing public funds.
No one on the staff dared to tax the director with favoritism, though everyone had noticed it.
UsageThe fault follows with: you tax someone with cheating, or with misusing funds.
Similarcharge, accuse, reproach
Note
The accusing verb keeps the "censure" side of the Latin taxāre that lies behind the tax-collecting verb. To tax someone with a fault is to charge them with it openly, often face to face, though critics in print have long taxed authors with exaggeration or a want of originality. It means more than suspecting them of it.
- 7To examine accounts closely in order to allow or disallow individual items.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
From Middle English "taxe", via Middle French "taxe" and Medieval Latin "taxa", from Latin "taxō" ("to appraise, value, estimate", and in medieval use "to tax"). It is a doublet of "task" and displaced the native Old English "gafol", which also meant "tribute" and "rent".
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- The noun derives from Middle English taxe through Middle French taxe and Medieval Latin taxa, ultimately from Latin taxō. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin taxō meant ‘to appraise, value, estimate’, and in medieval use ‘to tax’. en.wiktionary.org
- Tax is a doublet of task. en.wiktionary.org
- Tax displaced native Old English gafol. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English gafol also meant ‘tribute’ and ‘rent’. en.wiktionary.org
The verb goes back to Latin "taxāre," which meant "to handle, to censure, to appraise, to compute." Anglo-Norman made it "taxer" ("to impose a tax"), and Middle English took that as "taxen."