Also 4 exactoure, 5–7 exactour, 7 exactore. [a. L. exactor, agent-n. f. exigĕre: see EXACT v. and -OR. Cf. EXACTER.]
1. One who exacts: (in Lat. senses) a. An officer who levies or collects tribute, taxes or customs; a tax-collector. arch.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 259/2. The popes exactors went about to extort from the Churchmen the fift part of their goods.
1611. Bible, Isa. lx. 17. I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactours righteousnesse.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (ed. 3), I. iii. 99, note. The word [Reeve], under the form of Grieve, has changed from a public to a private exactor.
† b. An officer of justice (see quot.). Obs.
1388. Wyclif, Deut. xvi. 18, marg. Exactours ben thei that enqueren the truthe bi mesurable betingis and turmentis; and performen the sentence of iugis.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Luke xii. 58. Lest … the iudge deliuer thee to the exactour [1611 officer] and the exactour cast thee into prison.
c. One whose duty it is to enforce the performance of work; a taskmaster.
1609. Bible (Douay), Ex. v. 6. He commanded in that day the overseers of the workes and the exactores of the people. Ibid. (1611), Job xxxix. 7. Neither regardeth he the crying of the driuer [marg. exactor].
2. One who makes illegal or unjustifiable exactions; an extortioner, oppressor.
1382. Wyclif, Zech. ix. 8. The exactoure, or the vniust axer, shal na more passe vpon hem.
c. 1530. H. Rhodes, Bk. Nurture, in Babees Bk., 106. Bee not an exactour of another man.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. (1594), 624. Provided … he become not prodigall, which would soone make him an exactor.
1650. trans. Caussin’s Ang. Peace, 45. No force of treasure is comparable to the greedinesse of the exactours themselves.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. vii. 604. Whatever it was the pleasure of the exactor to take.
1833. I. Taylor, Fanat., v. 108. The warfare against ghostly exactors.
3. One who demands, lays claim to, or insists upon (something) as a matter of right; often with the added notion of excess. Const. of.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., I. vi. § 2 (1622), 42. And, as they reposed great Religion in an oath, in respect of the Actor: so did they likewise, in respect of the Exactor.
1648. Eikon Bas., 146. The will of my Enemies seems to be their onely rule … their success the exactor of what they please to call justice.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, II. III. 197. He was then an exactor of certain punctilioes.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 193, ¶ 6. There are unmerciful exactors of adulation, who withhold the wages of venality.
1828. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXXVII. 218. So severe an exactor of accuracy … ought to be more observant of it himself.
1875. ‘A. R. Hope,’ My Schoolboy Friends, 10. As the exactor of tasks.
fig. 1642. J. Eaton, Honey-c. Free Justific., 83. Moses with his Law is a severe exactor.
