tax

Etymology 1

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

1. Money paid to the government other than for transaction-specific goods and services.
   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. 2013-05-17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 23, page 19
2. (figurative, uncountable) A burdensome demand.
   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. 1843, Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons - Volume 39, page 234
   The extent of the traffic is a tax on the existing yard in the area at Frodingham, the busiest in the District. 1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 128
3. A task exacted from one who is under control; a contribution or service, the rendering of which is imposed upon a subject.
4. (obsolete) charge; censure

Etymology 2

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

1. (transitive) To impose and collect a tax from (a person or company).
   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. 2018, Kristin Lawless, Formerly known as food, page 251
2. (transitive) To impose and collect a tax on (something).
   Some think to tax wealth is destructive of a private sector.
3. (transitive) To make excessive demands on.
   Do not tax my patience.
   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. 1960 February, R. C. Riley, “The London-Birmingham services - Past, Present and Future”, in Trains Illustrated, page 103
   But patent applications are increasingly accompanied by volumes and volumes of data on DVD, which taxes the resources of the patent office. January 16 2007, “IBM - Reinventing the invention system - United States”, in IDEAS from IBM
4. (transitive) To accuse.
5. (transitive) To examine accounts in order to allow or disallow items.