Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TAX, v.t. [L. taxo; Fr. taxer; It. tassare.]

1. To lay, impose or assess upon citizens a certain sum of money or amount of property, to be paid to the public treasury, or to the treasury of a corporation or company, to defray the expenses of the government or corporation, &c. We are more heavily taxed by our idleness, pride and folly, than we are taxed by government. Franklin.
2. To load with a burden or burdens. The narrator – never taxes our faith beyond the obvious bounds of probability. J. Sparks.
3. To assess, fix or determine judicially, as the amount of cost on actions in court; as, the court taxes bills of cost.
4. To charge; to censure; to accuse; usually followed by with; as, to tax a man with pride. He was taxed with presumption. Men's virtues I have commended as freely as I have taxed their crimes. Dryden. [To tax of a crime, is not in use, nor to tax for. Both are now improper.]