Our Idleness, Pride, and Folly

By Wyatt Mason

TAX

1. An impost; a tribute imposed; an excise; a tallage.
2. Charge; censure.

To TAX

1. To load with imposts.
2. To charge; to censure; to accuse.

—A Dictionary of the English Language, 1766, by Samuel Johnson

To TAX

1. To law, 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.

1. To load with a burden or burdens.

2. To assess, fix or determine judicially, as the amount of cost on actions in court; as, the court taxes bills of cost.

3. To charge; to censure; to accuse; usually followed by with; as, to tax a man with pride. He was taxed with presumption.

—The American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828, by Noah Webster