tawny (tan i)

and n. [Formerly also tawnie, tawney, tanny, and in her. tenney; Hys apparell was sad, and so was all the resydeu of hys company, with clokes of sad tawnye blake. Paston Letters, III. 405. King Mully Hamet was not blacke, as many suppose, but Molata, or tawnie, as are the most of his subjects. Capt. John Smith , True Travels, I. 45. Neither do thou lust after that tawney weed tobacco. B. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii. 1. The poor people and Soldiers do chiefly wear Cotton cloath died to a dark tawny colour. Dampier , Voyages, II. 1. 42. Tawny emperor. See emperor. - Tawny owl, the common brown owl, or wood-owl, of Europe, Syrnium aluco ( Strix stridula ), widely distributed in the western Pale arctic region and resident in Great Britain. - Tawny thrush, the veery, or Wilson's thrush, Turdus fuscescens, one of the four song-thrushes which are common in eastern parts of North America. It is of the size of the hermit-thrush, but the upper parts are uniformly tawny, a paler tone of the same covers the breast, and the pectoral spots are small, sparse, confined to a small area, and comparatively light-colored. The bird is a fine songster. See IMG:content-2906.png:[blocks in formation] as tenné. tax see tangent, take, and cf. tact, tastel, from the same source, and task, ult. the same verb in a transposed form.] I. trans. 1. To lay a burden or burdens on; make demands upon; put to a certain strain; task: as, to tax one's memory. O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice To slander music any more than once. Shak., Much Ado, ii. 3. 46. Friend, your fugue taxes the finger. Browning , Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha, Nervousne is especially common among cla es of people who tax their brains much. H. Spencer , Prin. of Biol., § 82. 2. To subject to the payment of taxes; impose a tax on; levy money or other contributions from, as from subjects or citizens, to meet the expenses of government: as, to tax land, commodities, or income; to tax a people. He taxed the land to give the money. 2 Ki. xxiii. 35. I would not tax the needy commons. Shak ., 2 Hen. VI., iii. 1. 116. 3. In the New Testament, to register (persons and their property) for the purpose of imposing tribute. There went out a decree from Cæsar August us, that all Luke ii. 1. the world should be taxed [enrolled, R. V.]. 4. In law, to examine and allow or disallow items of charge for costs, fees, or disbursements: as, the court taxes bills of cost.-5. To accuse; charge; take to task: with of or (as now commonly) with before the thing charged. Stiffly to stand on this, and proudly approve The play, might tax the maker of Self-love. B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, Epil. They who tax others of Vanity and Pride have commonly that sordid Vice of Covetousne . Howell , Letters, ii. 3. All Confe there never was a more Learned Clergy: no Man taxes them with Ignorance. Selden , Table-Talk, p. 37. Before Charles comes, let me conceal myself somewhere -then do you tax him on the point we have been talking, and his answer may satisfy me at once. Sheridan, School for Scandal, iv. 3. 6. To take to task; censure; blame. He that wrote the Satyr of Piers Ploughman seemed to haue been a malcontent of that time, and therefore bent himselfe wholy to taze the disorders of that age. Putten ham, Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 50. The wanton shall tax my endeavours as ridiculous, knowing their own imperfections. Ford, Honour Triumphant, iii. Dear as he is to us, and dear to thee, Yet must I tax his sloth that claims no share With his great brother in his martial care. Pope , Iliad, x. 130. tawnying. [ Breton, Mother's Ble ing, p. 9. ( Davies .) (b) by local authority, for general municipal purposes. In a more general sense the word includes a e ments on specific properties benefited by a local improvement, for the purpose of paying expenses of that tawny-coatt (ta'ni-kōt), n. An ecclesiastical apparitor: so called from the color of the live roded from the irect when ery. Encyc. Dict . IMG:content-2907.png:[blocks in formation] tawpie, n. See taupie . taws, tawse (tâz), n. [ taw1 , q. v.] A leather strap, usually with a slit or fringe-like end, used as an instrument of punishment by school mas- ters and others. [Scotch.] Never use the tawse when a gloom can do the turn. Ramsay .