taxing

Pluraltaxings

1. 1
   adjective

   Demanding considerable effort, skill, or endurance; burdensome and difficult to carry out.

   The negotiations proved unexpectedly taxing for both delegations.

   She found the new role intellectually taxing but deeply rewarding.

   Similardemanding, challenging, difficult, arduous, onerous

   Oppositeeasy, undemanding, effortless

2. 2
   adjective

   Of an experience, leaving someone exhausted or physically or emotionally drained.

   The emotionally taxing trial left the jurors drained for days.

   Months of round-the-clock caregiving had been physically and mentally taxing.

   Similardraining, exhausting, wearing, tiring, grueling

   Oppositerestful, refreshing

   Note

   Here the weight falls on the person who lives through something, such as a trial, a night shift or months of caregiving. It pairs naturally with adverbs that name what gets worn down: emotionally, physically, mentally taxing. It compares with more and most, never with -er or -est. The "demanding" sense describes the task itself, while this one describes what the experience costs the person.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of tax.

   Lawmakers debated taxing sugary drinks to fund health programs.

   The city is taxing vacant properties to discourage speculation.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs. In "the city is taxing vacant properties" it is a participle in a progressive verb. In "debated taxing sugary drinks" it is a gerund that still takes a direct object. Either form can carry any meaning of tax: levying a charge, making excessive demands, accusing, or examining accounts. The second of these is the root of the adjective meaning "demanding".

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The action of imposing a compulsory charge on people, goods, or activities.

   The taxing of imports has long been a tool of trade policy.

   Heavy taxing of small businesses can slow local growth.

   Similartaxation

   Note

   The activity is usually a mass noun, as in the taxing of imports, with the thing taxed introduced by of. It can also be counted. Horace Binney's 1834 speech on the removal of the deposites lists "borrowings of money, taxings of the citizens and their property" as acts a government may lawfully perform. The plural taxings names separate acts of levying, not the taxes themselves.

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