IMPOST • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Impost

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noun

Impost n.

That which is imposed or levied; a tax, tribute, or duty; especially, a duty or tax laid by goverment on goods imported into a country. "Even the ship money... Johnson could not pronounce to have been an unconstitutional impost."

(Arch.) The top member of a pillar, pier, wall, etc., upon which the weight of an arch rests. Note: The impost is called continuous, if the moldings of the arch or architrave run down the jamb or pier without a break.

Synonyms: Tribute; excise; custom; duty; tax.

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Etymology of 'Impost'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Impost" Quotes from Famous Books

... or in the West Indies. The history of the statute is told by its date—1778. Now no constitutional lawyer will contend that the Parliament of the United Kingdom is legally bound by this Act. If Parliament were to impose an income tax on Jamaica to-morrow the impost would be legal, and could, no doubt, be enforced. But the Declaratory Act of 1778 makes it morally impossible for Parliament to tax any colony. That the impossibility does not arise from a law is clear, because it applies with as much strength to colonies which do not fall as to ...

— England's Case Against Home Rule • Albert Venn Dicey

... heritage of the khans, and their command there is law. Besides, though he has the right to order his noukers to cut to pieces with their kinjals [17] any inhabitant of Khounzakh, nay, any passer-by, the Khan cannot lay any tax or impost upon the people, and must content himself with the revenues arising from his flocks, and the fields cultivated by his karavashes (slaves,) or ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April 1843 • Various

... a sharp declivity, with a hole for the foot of the stone at its base. If the stone were now tipped over, it would slide into its place, and could be easily raised from its slanting position to the perpendicular. Then filling in the space between the mound and two contiguous stones, the impost could be dragged up to its position. I found a pleasure in working at this simple mechanical problem, as a change from the more imaginative thoughts suggested by ...

— Our Hundred Days in Europe • Oliver Wendell Holmes

... requisitions, expressed his opinion of them with frankness, pulling them to pieces mercilessly at their nightly confabs, in much the same way as he might have criticised the cook's kitchen accounts. On only one occasion did their discussion become at all acrimonious, and that was in relation to the impost of a million francs that the Prussian prefet at Rethel had levied on the department of the Ardennes, the alleged pretense of which was to indemnify Germany for damages caused by French ships of war and by the expulsion of Germans domiciled in French territory. Sedan's ...

— The Downfall • Emile Zola

... "auxiliary basket tax" was instituted to be levied on immovable property as well as on business pursuits and bequests. Moreover, following the Austrian model, the Government instituted, or rather reinstituted, the "candle tax," a toll on Sabbath candles. The proceeds from this impost on a religions ceremony were to go specifically towards the organization of the Jewish Crown schools, and were placed entirely at the disposal of the ...

— History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume II • S.M. Dubnow

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