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  1. impost love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Something, such as a tax or duty, that is imposed.
  2. n. Sports The weight a horse must carry in a handicap race.
  3. n. The uppermost part of a column or pillar supporting an arch.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. That which is imposed or levied; a tax, tribute, or duty; particularly, a duty or tax laid by government on goods imported; a customs-duty. To prevent interference with national commerce by the separate States, the Constitution of the United States (art. I. § 10) provides that “no State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws: and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States.”
  2. n. In architecture, the point where an arch rests on a wall or column; also, the condition of such resting or meeting. In classic architecture the impost is typically marked by a horizontal member; but in medieval work many different forms of imposts are used, and such horizontal members or moldings are frequently absent. Imposts have been classified as continuous imposts (see phrase below); discontinuous imposts, where the arch-moldings abut and are stopped on the pier; shafted imposts, where the arch-moldings spring from a capital and are different from those of the pier; and banded imposts, where the pier and arch have the same moldings.
  3. n. In sporting slang, a weight placed upon a horse in a handicap race.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The top part of a column or pillar that supports an arch.
  2. n. A tax, tariff or duty that is imposed, especially on merchandise.
  3. n. The top member of a pillar, pier, wall, etc., upon which the weight of an arch rests.
  4. n. horse racing, slang The weight that must be carried by a horse in a race, the handicap.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. That which is imposed or levied; a tax, tribute, or duty; especially, a duty or tax laid by goverment on goods imported into a country.
  2. n. (Arch.) The top member of a pillar, pier, wall, etc., upon which the weight of an arch rests.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the lowest stone in an arch -- from which it springs
  2. n. money collected under a tariff

Etymologies

  1. From Middle French impost, from Latin impositus, past participle of impōnere ("to impose"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Obsolete French, from Old French, from Medieval Latin impostum, from Latin, neuter of impostus, variant of impositus, past participle of impōnere, to place upon; see impose.French imposte, from Italian imposta, from Latin, feminine past participle of impōnere, to place upon; see impose. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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  • chained_bear "Then as now, all racehorses were assigned a weight, called an impost, to carry in each race. The impost consisted of the jockey, his roughly four and a half pounds of saddle, boots, pants, and silks, and, if necessary, lead pads inserted into the saddle."
    —Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (New York: Ballantine Books, 2001), 65 Oct 20, 2008

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‘impost’ has been looked up 1615 times, loved by 1 person, added to 11 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 10.