Library / English Dictionary

TAX

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: taxes   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Charge against a citizen's person or property or activity for the support of government

Synonyms:

revenue enhancement; tax; taxation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("tax" is a kind of...):

levy (a charge imposed and collected)

Domain member category:

charge (financial liabilities (such as a tax))

deductible (acceptable as a deduction (especially as a tax deduction))

progressive ((of taxes) adjusted so that the rate increases as the amount of income increases)

regressive ((of taxes) adjusted so that the rate decreases as the amount of income increases)

hidden tax (a tax paid unwittingly by the consumer (such as ad valorem taxes))

budget items; operating cost; operating expense; overhead (the expense of maintaining property (e.g., paying property taxes and utilities and insurance); it does not include depreciation or the cost of financing or income taxes)

deductible ((taxes) an amount that can be deducted (especially for the purposes of calculating income tax))

unearned income; unearned revenue (personal income that you did not earn (e.g., dividends or interest or rent income))

disposable income (income (after taxes) that is available to you for saving or spending)

net estate (the estate remaining after debts and funeral expenses and administrative expenses have been deducted from the gross estate; the estate then left to be distributed (and subject to federal and state inheritance taxes))

accumulator; collector; gatherer (a person who is employed to collect payments (as for rent or taxes))

imposition; infliction (the act of imposing something (as a tax or an embargo))

withholding (the act of deducting from an employee's salary)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tax"):

special assessment (an additional tax levied on private property for public improvements that enhance the value of the property)

transfer tax (any tax levied on the passing of title to property)

pavage (a tax toward paving streets)

stamp duty; stamp tax (a tax collected by requiring a stamp to be purchased and attached (usually on documents or publications))

rates (a local tax on property (usually used in the plural))

degressive tax (any tax in which the rate decreases as the amount subject to taxation increases)

proportional tax (any tax in which the rate is constant as the amount subject to taxation increases)

graduated tax; progressive tax (any tax in which the rate increases as the amount subject to taxation increases)

capitation (a tax levied on the basis of a fixed amount per person)

indirect tax (a tax levied on goods or services rather than on persons or organizations)

direct tax (a tax paid directly by the person or organization on whom it is levied)

gift tax (a tax imposed on transfers of property by gift during the lifetime of the giver)

franchise tax (a tax that is imposed by states on corporations; it depends both on the net worth of the corporation and on its net income attributable to activities within the state)

departure tax (a tax that is levied when you are departing a country by land or sea or air)

capital levy (a tax on capital or property)

capital gains tax (a tax on capital gains)

income tax (a personal tax levied on annual income)

single tax (a system of taxation in which a tax is levied on a single commodity (usually land))

Derivation:

tax (levy a tax on)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a charge against or accuse

Example:

They taxed him failure to appear in court

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "tax" is one way to...):

charge (make an accusatory claim)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody with something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Use to the limit

Example:

you are taxing my patience

Synonyms:

task; tax

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "tax" is one way to...):

extend; strain (use to the utmost; exert vigorously or to full capacity)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Levy a tax on

Example:

Clothing is not taxed in our state

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "tax" is one way to...):

impose; levy (impose and collect)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tax"):

excise (levy an excise tax on)

tariff (charge a tariff)

surtax (levy an extra tax on)

overtax (tax excessively)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

tax (charge against a citizen's person or property or activity for the support of government)

taxable ((of goods or funds) subject to taxation)

taxation (the imposition of taxes; the practice of the government in levying taxes on the subjects of a state)

taxation (government income due to taxation)

taxation (charge against a citizen's person or property or activity for the support of government)

taxer (a bureaucrat who levies taxes)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Set or determine the amount of (a payment such as a fine)

Synonyms:

assess; tax

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "tax" is one way to...):

determine; set (fix conclusively or authoritatively)

Verb group:

assess (charge (a person or a property) with a payment, such as a tax or a fine)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

A person's total income before taxes, exclusions, and deductions.

(Gross Income, NCI Thesaurus)

The U.S. Orphan Drug Act (1983) encourages development of these therapeutics by tax breaks and a seven-year monopoly on drug sales.

(Orphan Drug, NCI Thesaurus)

Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) Assembling tax records, business affairs, or papers.

(FAQ - Assemble, NCI Thesaurus)

My dearest Mina,—I must say you tax me very unfairly with being a bad correspondent.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

My eye rose to his; and while I looked in his fierce face I gave an involuntary sigh; his gripe was painful, and my over-taxed strength almost exhausted.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Headey believes that if increasing taxes on unhealthy food products is not having the desired effects, something must be done to discourage consumers from choosing unhealthy food products and producers from producing them.

(High cost of healthy food to blame for malnutrition, SciDev.Net)

For the first time he heard of socialism, anarchism, and single tax, and learned that there were warring social philosophies.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

While the researchers acknowledge that implementing this process in conventional reverse osmosis systems is taxing, they propose a spiral-wound module system, similar to a roll of towels.

(Novel Technology Uses Bacteria for Cleaning Water, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Sitting with her on Sunday evening—a wet Sunday evening—the very time of all others when, if a friend is at hand, the heart must be opened, and everything told; no one else in the room, except his mother, who, after hearing an affecting sermon, had cried herself to sleep, it was impossible not to speak; and so, with the usual beginnings, hardly to be traced as to what came first, and the usual declaration that if she would listen to him for a few minutes, he should be very brief, and certainly never tax her kindness in the same way again; she need not fear a repetition; it would be a subject prohibited entirely: he entered upon the luxury of relating circumstances and sensations of the first interest to himself, to one of whose affectionate sympathy he was quite convinced.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It is an inconceivable thing, but even our special war tax of fifty million, which one would think made our purpose as clear as if we had advertised it on the front page of the Times, has not roused these people from their slumbers.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)