Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A form of direct royal taxation that was levied in France before 1789 on nonprivileged subjects and lands and tended to weigh most heavily on the peasants.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Also applied to the tenor voice and to the tenor species of wind-instruments: as, taille de basson, the tenor oboe or tenoroon.
  • In heraldry, party per bend sinister.
  • noun A Middle English form of tail, 1.
  • noun Cut as to form or figure, especially with reference to proportionate stature; build; make: used of persons, but only as a French word.
  • noun In old French law, a tax, tailage, or subsidy; any imposition levied by the king or any other lord on his subjects.
  • noun In English law, the fee or holding which is opposite to fee simple.
  • noun In dressmaking: The waist or bodice of a gown.
  • noun The style or fit of the waist or bodice of a gown. [In both senses an adaptation of the French term.]
  • noun In music, same as viola.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A tally; an account scored on a piece of wood.
  • noun (O. F. Law) Any imposition levied by the king, or any other lord, upon his subjects.
  • noun (Mus.) The French name for the tenor voice or part; also, for the tenor viol or viola.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical A form of taxation levied on the land of peasants in pre-Revolutionary France.
  • noun obsolete A tally; an account scored on a piece of wood.
  • noun music, obsolete The tenor voice or part.
  • noun music, obsolete The part for the tenor viol or viola.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, division; see tail.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French taille.

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