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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Impost

Impost \Im"post\, n. [OF. impost, F. impot, LL. impostus, fr. L. impostus, p. p. of imponere to impose. See Impone.]

  1. 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.
    --Macaulay.

  2. (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.

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

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
impost

"tax, duty," 1560s, from Middle French impost, from Medieval Latin impostum, from neuter of Latin impostus, contracted from impositus, past participle of imponere (see impostor).

Wiktionary
impost

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context chiefly historical English) A tax, tariff or duty that is imposed, especially on merchandise. 2 (context horse racing slang English) The weight that must be carried by a horse in a race, the handicap. Etymology 2

n. The top part of a column, pillar, pier, wall, etc. that supports an arch.

WordNet
impost
  1. n. money collected under a tariff [syn: customs, customs duty, custom]

  2. the lowest stone in an arch -- from which it springs [syn: springer]

Wikipedia
Impost

Impost may mean:

  • A type of tax, especially a tax levied on imports
  • A handicap (usually a lead weight) used in horse racing
  • Impost (architecture): a block or capital on which an arch rests
Impost (architecture)

In architecture, an impost is a projecting block resting on top of a column or embedded in a wall, serving as the base for the springer or lowest voussoir of an arch.

Usage examples of "impost".

As collector of imposts he had access to passenger lists, and had made it his business to personally check each traveler.

Had this been done without Mars and Bellona, so that there should have been no place for victory, no one conquering where no one had fought, would not the condition of the Romans and of the other nations have been one and the same, especially if that had been done at once which afterwards was done most humanely and most acceptably, namely, the admission of all to the rights of Roman citizens who belonged to the Roman empire, and if that had been made the privilege of all which was formerly the privilege of a few, with this one condition, that the humbler class who had no lands of their own should live at the public expense-an alimentary impost, which would have been paid with a much better grace by them into the hands of good administrators of the republic, of which they were members, by their sown hearty consent, than it would have been paid with had it to be extorted from them as conquered men?

It is therefore to this impost that the dearness of bread is directly attributed.

He apportions the impost, taxes each one according to his judgment, decides their quarrels without charge, distributes their patrimony without fees, gives judgment without expense.

But the indications, the capitations, and other imposts raised at the time of the emperors on the persons or goods of freemen had been changed into an obligation of defending the frontiers, and marching against the enemy.

Cracked on such a rattling impost that cotton-seed olive-oil couldn’t stand the raise.

When we contemplate the ordinary annual augmentation of imposts from increasing population and wealth, the augmentation of the same revenue by its extension to the new acquisition, and the economies which may still be introduced into our public expenditures, I cannot but hope that Congress in reviewing their resources will find means to meet the intermediate interests of this additional debt without recurring to new taxes, and applying to this object only the ordinary progression of our revenue.

Sure, they might order Amalgamated Foundries to pay taxes and imposts, but I have no doubt the Council will turn the cargo right back over to them.

In return, they were themselves exempt, altogether, or in part, from the indiction and other imposts.

The license, the imposts, the door and window tax, the hundredths!