tax 
enues, municipal revenues being entirely raised from this 
source. See phrases below. 
Since (bountious Prince) on me and my Descent 
Thou doost impose no other tax nor Rent 
But one sole Precept, of most iust condition 
(No Precept neither, but a Prohibition). 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., Eden. 
Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being 
eminent. Sivift, Thoughts on Various Subjects. 
The ability of a country to pay taxes must always be 
proportioned, in a great degree, to the quantity of money 
in circulation, and to the celerity with which it circulates. 
A. Hamilton, federalist, No. 12. 
Taxes are a portion of the produce of the land and labor 
of a country, placed at the disposal of the government. 
Jticardo, Pol. Econ., viii. 
3f. Charge; censure. 
He could not without grief of heart, and without some 
tax upon himself and his ministers for the not executing 
the laws, look upon the bold licence of some pamphlets. 
Clarendon. 
4f. A lesson to be learned; a task. Johnson. 
~ Capitation tax,apoll.tax. Collateral-Inheritance 
tax. See collateral Diffusion Of taxes. Six diffusion. 
Income tax. See income. Inheritance tax law. 
See inheritance.- Poll tax. See poll-tax.- Single tax, 
in economics, taxation solely on land-value, to the exclusion 
of other taxation by the same state. According to the the- 
ory advocated in recent times by Henry George and others, 
this tax should supersede all others, and should fall only 
on valuable land, exclusive of the improvements on such 
land. 
The single tax, in short, would call upon men to con- 
tribute to the public revenues not in proportion to what 
they produce or accumulate, but in proportion to the 
value of the natural opportunities they hold. It would 
compel them to pay just as much for holding land idle as 
for putting it to its fullest use. 
Henry George, Single Tax Platform. 
Succession tax. See succession. Tax commissioner, 
in certain of the United States, an officer, generally one of 
a board, charged with the valuation of property and assess- 
ment of taxes thereon. Tax deed, a deed by which the 
officer of the law undertakes to convey the title of a former 
owner of land, sold by the state or a municipality for un- 
paid taxes, to the purchaser at the tax-sale. Tax lease, a 
lease used where, instead of selling the fee, the state sells 
a term of years in the land. Tonnage tax, a tax on ves- 
sels, usually measured by the tonnage of the vessel, some- 
times imposed as a fee for entering the port, irrespective 
of any service received, but as a compensation for the 
privilege of entering and anchoring : a kind of tax which 
the States are prohibited by the United States Constitu- 
tion from imposing, as distinguished from pilotage, quar- 
antine, and similar dues imposed with reference to a ser- 
vice rendered or tendered. Wheel tax, a popular name 
for a tax upon carriages. Window tax. See window. 
= Syn. 2, Tax, Impost, Duty, Customs, Toll, Rates, Excise, 
Assessment, Tribute. Tax is the general word for an 
amount demanded by government for its own purposes 
from those who are under its authority. Imposts, duties, 
and customs are levied upon imports or exports, but im- 
post applies to any tax viewed as laid on. Toll and rates 
are certain local taxes : as, toll at a bridge, ferry, or plank- 
road ; church-rates and poor-rates in England, water-rates. 
Excise is a precise word in England (see def.); its most 
frequent use is in connection with malt and spirituous 
liquors. Assessment is either (a) the valuation of prop- 
erty for the purpose of its taxation ; (&) the imposing of 
the tax; or(c) a charge on specific real property of a share 
of the expense of a local improvement specially benefiting 
that property. Tribute views the tax as laid not for the 
public good, but arbitrarily for the benefit of the one levy- 
ing it, especially a conqueror : as, " Millions for defense, 
but not one cent for tribute." Each of these words had 
its older, peculiar, or figurative uses. See definitions of 
the words, and also of subsidy. 
taxability (tak-sa-bil'i-ti), w. [< taxable + -ity 
(see -bility).~\ The state of being taxable ; tax- 
ableness. 
taxable (tak'sa-bl), a. and n. [< tax + -able."] 
I. a. 1. Subject or liable to taxation. 2. Al- 
lowable according to law, as certain costs or 
disbursements of an action in court. 
II. n. A person or thing subject to taxation ; 
especially, a person subject to a poll-tax. 
taxableness (tak'sa-bl-nes), n. The state of 
being taxable ; taxability. 
taxably (tak'sa-bli), adv. In a taxable manner. 
Taxacese (tak-sa'se-e), n. pi. [NL. (Lindley, 
1836), < Taxus + -ace*.] A group of conifer- 
ous plants, the same as the Taxiness of Richard 
and the suborder Taxoidese of Eichler, by many 
separated as a distinct order, the yew family, 
now made (Goebel, 1882) a suborder of the 
Conifer X. It is characterized by dioecious flowers, an em- 
bryo with only two cotyledons, leaves sometimes with fork- 
ing veins, and the fruit not a perfect cone, but commonly 
fleshy. It includes the two tribes Taxeas and Taxoidese. 
Taxaspidese (tak-sas-pid'e-e), . pi. [NL., < 
Gr. raf<f, a company, cohort, + aairif, a round 
shield.] In ornith., in Sundevall's system, the 
fifth cohort of scutelliplantar Passeres, consist- 
ing of a heterogeneous allocation of chiefly 
American genera, such as Tliamnophilus, For- 
miearms, Pteroplochits, and their allies, to which 
are added the Madagascar genus Philepitta and 
the Australian Menura. Without the two last 
named, the group would correspond somewhat 
to the formicarioid Passeres. 
6202 
taxaspidean (tak-sas-pid'e-an), a. [< Taxas- 
pide(ie) + -an.] In ornith.', having that modifi- 
cation of the scutelliplantar tarsus in which the 
plantar scutella are contiguous, rectangular, 
and disposed in regular series. 
taxation (tak-sa'shon), n. [< ME. taxaciini, < 
OF. taxation, taxaci'bn, F. taxation = Pr. taxa- 
gion = OSp. tassacion, Sp. tasacion = Pg. taxa- 
gtto = It. tassazione, < L. taxatio(n-), a rating, 
estimation, < taxare, pp. taratus, touch, rate, 
estimate: see tax.'] 1. The act of laying a tax, 
or of imposing taxes on the subjects or citizens 
of a state or government, or on the members of 
a corporation or company, by the proper au- 
thority; the raising of revenue required for 
public service by means of taxes ; the system 
by which such a revenue is raised. 
The subjects of every state ought to contribute to the 
support of the government, as nearly as possible in pro- 
portion to their respective abilities : that is, in proportion 
to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the 
protection of the state. . . . In the observation or neglect 
of this maxim consists what is called the equality or in- 
equality of taxation. 
Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, V. ii. 2. 
2. Tax or assessment imposed; the aggregate 
of particular taxes. 
He ... daily such taxations did exact. 
Daniel, Civil Wars, iv. 25. 
3f. Charge; accusation; censure; scandal. 
My father's love is enough to honour him ; enough ! 
speak no more of him ; you'll be whipped for taxation one 
of these days. Shak., As you Like it, i. 2. 91. 
4. The act of taxing or assessing a bill of costs 
in law Progressive or progressional taxation, a 
system of taxation based on the principle of raising the 
rate of the tax as the wealth of the taxpayer increases. 
It is sometimes called graduated taxation. 
taxativelyt (tak'sa-tiv-li), adv. [< tax + 
-atii-e + -fy 2 .] As a tax. 
If these ornaments or furniture had been put taxatively, 
and by way of limitation, such a thing bequeathed as a 
legacy shall not be paid, if it wants ornaments or furni- 
ture. Ayliffe, Parergon, p. 339. (Latham.) 
tax-cart (taks'kiirt), n. [For taxed cart: see the 
second quotation.] A light spring-cart. [Eng.] 
She . . . begged that Farmer Subsoil would take her 
thither in his tax-cart. Trollope, Barchester Towers, xxv. 
Vehicles not over the value of 211., formerly termed 
taxed carts, and, since their exemption from tax, usually 
called in the provinces tax-carts. 
S. Dowell, Taxes in England, III. 231. 
tax-dodger (taks'doj"er), . One who evades 
the payment of his taxes; specifically, a resi- 
dent in a locality where the rate of taxation is 
high, who, in order to escape paying such taxes, 
removes before the day of assessment to an- 
other residence in some locality where the rate 
is lower. [U. S.] 
The tax-dodger is one who, finding that the rate of tax- 
ation in Boston is too high for his means, flies, with his 
wife and children, to some rural town. 
The Nation, March 30, 1878, p. 202. 
Taxeae (tak'se-e), n. pi. [NL. (A. W. Eichler, 
1887), < Taxus + -eie.] A tribe of gymnosper- 
mous plants, of the order Coniferse and subor- 
der Taxacess ( Taxoidese of Eichler) . As constituted 
by Eichler, it includes 15 or 20 species of 5 genera, most- 
ly of northern temperate regions. It is characterized by 
diojcious flowers, the pistillate in aments of imbricated 
scales, of which several or only the terminal one is fertile, 
and by a solitary erect or afterward oblique ovule which 
is surrounded or partly inclosed by the hollowed apex of 
a sessile or stalked lamina free from its accompanying 
bract. The genus Ginkgo is exceptional in bearing an 
ovule on each lobe of a two- to six-parted lamina, Cepha- 
lotaxus in its small adnate lamina with twin ovules, and 
Phyllocladus in its monoecious flowers. Only one genus, 
Taxus(tlie type), is of wide distribution. Cephalotaxus and 
Ginkgo occur only in China and Japan ; Torreya there and 
in the United States ; Phyllocladus in Tasmania, New Zea- 
land,and Borneo. The tribe Taxeee of Bentham and Hooker 
(1880) differs in excluding Cephalotaxus and including two 
chiefly Australian genera, Dacrydium and Pherospheera, 
now united and placed in Taxoidex. 
taxelt (tak'sel), . [< NL. taxus, a badger, + 
-el.] The American badger, Taxidea americana. 
See cut under Taxidea. 
taxeopod (tak'se-o-pod), a. and n. [< Gr. ra^if, 
arrangement (see taxis), + TTO'VC (Trod-) = E./ooi.] 
I. a. Having that arrangement of the tarsal 
bones which characterizes the elephant and 
other members of the Taxeopoda. It consists in the 
apposition of individual bones of one tarsal row with those 
of the other row, and is distinguished from the diplarthrous 
arrangement prevailing in the true ungulates. In a per- 
fectly taxeopod foot each of the distal tarsal bones would 
articulate by its whole proximal surface with the distal 
surface of one bone of the proximal row. In the diplar- 
throus type each bone of one row has more or leas exten- 
sive articulation with two bones of the other row. 
II. n. A member of the Taxeopoda. 
Taxeopoda (tak-se-op'o-da), n. pi. [NL. : see 
taxeopod.] A prime division of ungulate or 
hoofed quadrupeds, consisting of the fossil ' 'on- 
taxin 
dylarthra and the existing and extinct Probos- 
riilr/l. 
taxeopodous (tak-se-op'o-dus), a. [< taxeopod 
+ -oun. ] Same as taxeopod. E. D. Cope, Amer. 
Nat., Nov., 1887, p. 987. 
taxeopody (tak-se-op'o-di ), n. [< taxeopod + 
-1/8.] That arrangement of the tarsal bones 
which characterizes taxeopods. See taxeopod, a. 
In the equine line, after the development of diplarthry 
in the posterior foot^ a tendency to revert to taxeopody 
appears. Amer. Nat., May, 1890. 
taxer (tak'ser), n. [Also taxor; < ME. taxour, 
< OF. taxour, taxeur, < ML. taxator, assessor, 
taxer, (. L. taxare, tax: see tax, .] 1. One 
who taxes. 2. In Cambridge University, one 
of two officers chosen yearly to regulate the 
assize of bread and see that the true gage of 
weights and measures is observed. 
tax-free (taks'fre), a. Exempt from taxation. 
tax-gatherer (taks'ga?'H // er-er), n. A collector 
of taxes. 
He [Casaubon] says that Horace, being the son of a tax- 
gatherer or collector, . . . smells everywhere of the mean- 
ness of his birth and education. Dryden, Essay on .Satire. 
taxiarch (tak'si-ark), 11. [< Gr. ra 
apxw, ( rafff, a. division of an army, order (see 
taxis), + apxeiVj rule.] An ancient Greek mil- 
itary officer commanding a company or bat- 
talion, or more usually a larger division of an 
army, as a cohort or a brigade. In the Greek 
Church, St. Michael is commonly called "the 
Taxiarch" as the captain of the celestial armies. 
taxicorn (tak'si-korn), a. and. [< NL. *taxi- 
cornis, < Gr. raf<f, arrangement, + L. cornii, 
horn.] I. a. In entom., perfoliated, as an an- 
tenna; having perforated antennae; belonging 
to the Taxicornia. 
II. n. A taxicorn beetle. 
Taxicornest (tak-si-kdr'nez), n. pi. [NL.: see 
Taxicornia.^ In Latreille's system, the second 
family of heteromerous Coleoptera, embracing 
a number of genera now mainly referred to the 
family Tenebrionidee. 
Taxicbrniat (tak-si-kor'ni-a), n. pi. [NL. : see 
taxicorn.'] In entom., a suBorder of Coleoptera, 
including such as the families Cossyphidse and 
Diaperidse, in some of the members of which 
the antennas are perfoliated. 
Taxidea (tak-sid'e-ii), 11. [NL. (Waterhouse, 
1838), < NL. taxus', a badger", + Gr. cHoc, form.] 
A genus of Mustelldse, of the subfamily Melinse, 
which contains the American badger, T. ameri- 
cana. It differs from Afeles and other meline genera 
in many important cranial and dental characters, as well 
as in external form. The teeth are 34, with only 1 true 
molar above and 2 below on each side. The form is very 
stout, squat, and clumsy ; the tail is short and broad ; the 
American Badger (Taxidea amtricana). 
pelage is loose, with diffuse coloration ; the fore claws are 
very large, and the habits thoroughly fossorial ; the hind 
feet are plantigrade ; the perinea! glands are moderately 
developed, and there is a peculiar subcaudal pouch, as in 
other badgers. A second species or variety, T. berlandieri, 
inhabits Texas and Mexico. See badger'2. 
taxidermal (tak'si-dfer-mal), a. [< taxiderm-y 
+ -/.] Of or pertaining to taxidermy; taxi- 
dermic. The Century, XXV. 238. 
taxidermic (tak-si-der'mik), a. [< taxiderm-y 
+ -ic.] Of or pertaining to taxidermy, or the 
art of preparing and preserving the skins of 
animals. 
taxidermist (tak'si-der-mist), n. [< taxiderm-y 
-f- -ist.] A person skilled in taxidermy. 
taxidermize(tak'si-der-miz),Tj. t. [< taxiderm-y 
+ -i:e.~] To subject to the processes of taxi- 
dermy. Pop. Set. Mo., XXXIV. 779. [Rare.] 
taxidermy (tak'si-der-mi), n. [= F. taxidcr- 
mie, < Gr. TO^II; order, arrangement, + Mpfia, 
skin: seederm.] The art of preparing and pre- 
serving the skins of animals, and also of stuff- 
ing and mounting the skins so as to give them 
as close a resemblance to the living forms as 
possible. See stuffing, 3. 
taxin (tak'sin), w. [< Taxus + -i 2 .] A res- 
inous substance obtained in small quantity 
from the leaves of the yew-tree, Titrux oaeeata, 
by treatment with alcohol and tartaric acid. 
