English

Alternative forms

• blood-tax

Noun

blood tax ‎(plural blood taxes)

1. A tax paid by bloodshed; especially, a derogatory term for military conscription.

   "France is the mother of Conscription. What has she gained by that blood-tax?"

   "I appeal to the working men of Great Britain..not to be misled by catch-phrases about ‘the liberty of the subject’ and the ridiculous cant about a ‘Blood Tax’!"

   "They would have paid their blood-tax, done their own part in the immemorial human warfare against nature."

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