impost

plural imposts

1. historicalA tax, tariff or duty that is imposed, especially on merchandise.

   1752, David Hume, Political Discourses, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, “Of Taxes,” p. 120, […] a duty upon commodities checks itself; and a prince will soon find, that an encrease of the impost is no encrease of his revenue.

   4 more examples

   ’Tis a Land-tax, vvhich he’s too poor to pay; / You, therefore muſt ſome other Impoſt lay.

   1667 (revival performance), John Dryden, “Epilogue to the Wild Gallant, as It was First Acted”, in The Wild Gallant: A Comedy. […], In the Savoy [London]: […] T[homas] Newcomb for H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1669, →OCLC

   […] before the sequestration of emigrant property, I had remitted the imposts they had ceased to pay;

   1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 24, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book II (The Golden Thread), page 162

   The Ashanti traded with the tribes to the north and with coastal folk to the south, and caravans going in either direction were liable for imposts according to the nature of the goods they carried.

   1941, Melville J. Herskovits, chapter 3, in The Myth of the Negro Past, New York: Harper, page 68

   New universal direct taxes had to be introduced […], while the burden of indirect taxes was also made heavier, with new imposts being levied on an ensemble of items ranging from playing cards to wigs.

   2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 56

2. slanghobbiesThe weight that must be carried by a horse in a race; the handicap.

plural imposts

1. architectureThe top part of a column, pillar, pier, wall, etc. that supports an arch.

   The outer circle [of Stonehenge] has been formed by a combination of two uprights and an impost; yet each combination of these three stones is detached, and without any connection with the rest, except that of coinciding in the form of a circle.

   1798, William Gilpin, Observations on the Western Parts of England, London: T. Cadell jun. and W. Davies, Section 7, p. 79