excise

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An internal tax imposed on the production, sale, or consumption of a commodity or the use of a service within a country: excises on tobacco, liquor, and long-distance telephone calls.
2. n. A licensing charge or a fee levied for certain privileges.
3. v. To levy an excise on.
4. v. To remove by or as if by cutting: excised the tumor; excised two scenes from the film.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To cut out or off: as, to excise a tumor.
2. n. An inland tax or duty imposed on certain commodities of home production and consumption, as spirits, tobacco, etc., or on their manufacture and sale. In Great Britain the licenses to pursue certain callings, to keep dogs, to carry a gun, and to deal in certain commodities, are included in the excise duties, as well as the taxes on armorial bearings, carriages, servants. plate, railways, etc. Excise duties were first imposed by the Long Parliament in 1643.
3. n. That branch or department of the civil service which is connected with the levying of such duties. In the United States this office is called the Office of Internal Revenue.
4. Of or pertaining to the excise: as, excise acts; excise commissioners.
5. To lay or impose a duty on; levy an excise on.
6. To impose upon; overcharge.

Wiktionary

1. v. To cut out; to remove.
2. v. rare To perform certain types of female circumcision.
3. n. A tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country).
4. v. To impose an excise tax on something.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. In inland duty or impost operating as an indirect tax on the consumer, levied upon certain specified articles, as, tobacco, ale, spirits, etc., grown or manufactured in the country. It is also levied to pursue certain trades and deal in certain commodities. Certain direct taxes (as, in England, those on carriages, servants, plate, armorial bearings, etc.), are included in the excise. Often used adjectively
2. n. engraving That department or bureau of the public service charged with the collection of the excise taxes.
3. v. To lay or impose an excise upon.
4. v. Prov. Eng. To impose upon; to overcharge.
5. v. To cut out or off; to separate and remove.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a tax that is measured by the amount of business done (not on property or income from real estate)
2. v. levy an excise tax on
3. v. remove by cutting
4. v. remove by erasing or crossing out or as if by drawing a line