excise

From Middle Dutch excijs, altered under the influence of Latin excisus (“cut out, removed”), from earlier accijs (“tax”), from Old French acceis (“tax, assessment”) (whence modern French accise), from Vulgar Latin *accensum, ultimately from Latin ad + census (“tax, census”).

• excize (obsolete)

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛkˌsaɪz/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -aɪz

excise (countable and uncountable, plural excises)

1. A tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country).
   • 1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547

     Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year.

   • 1755, Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, "excise",

     A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom Excise is paid.

   • 1787, Constitution of the United States of America, Article I, Section 8,

     The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts […] of the United States;

• excise tax

excise (third-person singular simple present excises, present participle excising, simple past and past participle excised)

1. To impose an excise tax on something.

From French exciser, from Latin excisus, past participle of excīdō (“cut out”), from ex (“out of, from”) + caedō (“cut”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛkˌsaɪz/, /əkˈsaɪz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əkˈsaɪz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

excise (third-person singular simple present excises, present participle excising, simple past and past participle excised)

1. To cut out; to remove.
   • 1846, William Youatt, The Dog:

     [T]hey [warts] may be lifted up with the forceps, and excised with a knife or scissors, and the wound touched with nitrate of silver.

   • 1901, Andrew Lang, Preface to the second edition of Myth, Ritual, and Religion,

     In revising the book I […] have excised certain passages which, as the book first appeared, were inconsistent with its main thesis.

   • 1949 July and August, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 257:

     In the opposite direction the allowance of 103 min. for the 83.8 miles from Waterloo to Salisbury, which has remained untouched since the worst period in the war, when it included a Woking stop that long since has been excised, was another timing that left drivers completely nonplussed at times as to how to fill it out.

   • 1987, Ann Rule, Small Sacrifices, page 442:

     Insanity can be cured. Personality disorders are so inextricably entwined with the heart and mind and soul that it is well-nigh impossible to excise them.

   • 2003, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Section 1(1)”, in Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003‎, →ISBN, page 14:

     A person is guilty of an offence if he excises, infibulates or otherwise mutilates the whole or any part of a girl’s labia majora, labia minora or clitoris.

• excision

excise

1. inflection of exciser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

excīse

1. vocative masculine singular of excīsus