[teyl; Fr. tah-yuh ] 
[teylz; Fr. tah-yuh ] . | 1. | French History. a tax that was levied by a king or seigneur on his subjects or on lands held under him and that became solely a royal tax in the 15th century from which the lords and later the clergy were exempt. |
| 2. | (in dressmaking) the waist or bodice of a garment. |
| 3. | Obsolete. the shape of one's body from shoulders to waist; figure; build. |
| taille (tāl, tä'yə) n. 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. [French, from Old French, division; see tail2.] |
taille
the most important direct tax of the pre-Revolutionary monarchy in France. Its unequal distribution, with clergy and nobles exempt, made it one of the hated institutions of the ancien regime.
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