[f. EXCISE sb.]
† 1. trans. a. To impose an excise or tax upon (a thing). Also transf. and fig. Obs.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., III. xcix. 49. Love, Thou canst … such oregrown Behemoths please As tax the scaly Nation, and excise the Seas.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Hue & Cry, iii. in Wks. (1687), 207.
| When zealous hinting and the yawn | |
| Excise our Miniver and Lawn. |
1662. Petty, Taxes, 24. The first way we propose, is, to excise the very land itself in kind.
1761. Churchill, Night, in Chalm., Poets, XIV. 286. No Statesman e’er will find it worth his pains To tax our labours, and excise our brains.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Charity, Poet. Wks. 1774, II. 155.
| Worth is excis’d, and Virtue pays | |
| A heavy Tax for barren praise. |
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 320. Brandies and other spirits are now excised at the distillery.
b. To force (a person) to pay an excise-due; hence, to overcharge; also fig.
a. 1658. Cleveland, London Lady, in Wks. (1687), 238.
| Thus purely now her self, homewards she packs, | |
| Exciz’d in all the Dialects of her knacks: | |
| Squeez’d to the utmost Thread, and latest Grain. |
1687. W. W., in Cleveland’s Wks., 281.
| Yet did he ne’er Excise the Natives; nor | |
| Made Forreign Mines unto his Mint bring Oar. |
1732. Pope, Hor. Sat., II. ii. 134. In Southsea days not happier, when surmis’d The Lord of Thousands, than if now Excis’d.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xliv. ‘We’ll no excise you neither, though we live sae near the Custom-house.’ Ibid. (1820), Monast., I. Introd. Ep. 49. ‘I wadna hae excised Johnnie, dead or alive.’
† 2. To deduct by way of excise. Obs. rare–1.
1713. Guardian, No. 52 (1752), I. 224. ’Tis impossible to conceive that more than an eighth Part can be excised from the Expences of your Subjects.
Hence Excising ppl. a.
1735. Pope, Donne, Sat., IV. 147. Shortly no lad shall chuck, or lady vole, But some excising Courtier will have toll.
