poll tax

[ pohl ]
See synonyms for poll tax on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a capitation tax, the payment of which is sometimes a prerequisite to exercise the right of suffrage.

Origin of poll tax

1
First recorded in 1685–95

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How to use poll tax in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for poll tax

poll tax

noun
  1. a tax levied per head of adult population

  2. an informal name for (the former) community charge

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for poll tax

poll tax

A tax required as a qualification for voting. After the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution extended the vote to blacks in 1870, many southern states instituted poll taxes to prevent blacks from voting. The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1964, prohibits poll taxes for federal elections.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.