[f. TASK sb. Cf. to fine, etc.]
I. † 1. trans. To impose a tax upon; to tax; to exact tribute from. Obs.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 64 b/2. He shal taske and dyme your corn and sheues.
a. 1500. in Arnolde’s Chron. (1811), p. xix. This yere lost the Kinge Normandy and Angeoy, and euery plough land [was] tasked at iij. s. for to gete it ageyne.
1530. [see 2].
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., IV. iii. 92. Hee … in the neck of that, task’t the whole State.
1598. W. Phillip, trans. Linschoten, I. xcii. 152/1. All the townes men [were] tasked euery one at a certaine summe of mony.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 424. He taskes thee not to the cost of Jewish worship, or Popish wast.
2. To force, put, or set (a person) to a task; to impose a task on; to assign a definite amount of work to.
1530. Palsgr., 753/1. I taske, I put or sette one to his taske what laboure he shall do or what he shall paye, je tauxe.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., II. i. 20. But now to taske the tasker.
1667. Woodhead, St. Teresa, II. xi. 93. Let her task, and employ them in … Exercises.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 23. Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys;… Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat With stripes.
1828. Life Planter Jamaica, 154. The negroes complained more of the [fact] of being tasked, than … of the additional labour.
b. Const. to, with sb. or inf. Often fig.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, xiv. 53. To task yourself to such a tedious life As die a maid.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., IV. i. 9. Nay, taske me to my word; approue me Lord. Ibid. (c. 1600), Sonn., lxxii. O least the world should taske you to recite, What merit liu’d in me that you should loue. Ibid. (1607), Cor., I. iii. 39. A Haruest man, that [’s] task’d to mowe Or all, or loose his hyre.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XX. 134. Twelve female slaves … Task’d for the royal board to bolt the bran From the pure flour.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., V. iv. Man alone … tasks creation to assist him in murdering his brother worm!
3. transf. and fig. To occupy or engage fully or burdensomely; to subject to severe burden, labor, or trial; to put a strain upon; to put in a condition of stress or difficulty; to put to the proof; = TAX v. 4.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., IV. vi. 30. Doctor Caius … Shall shuffle her away, While other sports are tasking of their mindes. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., I. ii. 6. Some things of weight, That taske our thoughts.
1647–8. Cotterell, Davila’s Hist. Fr. (1678), 28. At length he resolved to task the King’s inclinations.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, IV. 61. You must not task me too high.
1836. Bp. Hampden, Lett to Abp. Whately, 2 March, in Memorials (1871), 58. The effort is most painful, and strongly tasks my nerves.
1850. W. Irving, Goldsmith, i. 22. He tasked his slender means to the utmost in educating him.
1851. H. Melville, Whale, xxxvi. He [the White Whale] tasks me [Ahab]; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it.
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., 115. It tasked his diplomatic skill to effect his departure in safety.
b. spec. To test the soundness of (a ship’s timbers, a plank, etc.).
1803. Naval Chron., X. 259. That … frigate is … to be, what is called in the language of the dock yard, tasked, to see if her timbers are sound.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Tasking, examining a vessel to see whether her timbers are sound.
4. To give or portion out (work) as a task.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon., vii. (1642), 438. They have their work for the day tasked out unto them.
1812. [see TASKER 3 b].
II. † 5. To take to task; to censure, reprove, chide, reprehend; = TAX v. 6. Obs.
1580. G. Harvey, Lett. to Spenser, Wks. (Grosart), I. 87. If it lyke you in the meane while … to see howe I taske a young Brother of myne.
1608. Topsell, Serpents (1658), 721. There is another pretty fable in Esop, tasking discontented persons under the name of Frogs.
1614. J. Cooke, Tu Quoque, F j. I call thee vp, and taske thee for thy slownesse.
1632. Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, I. ii. To say ‘the late dead Marshal, The father of this young lord here, my client, Hath done his country great and faithful service’ Might task me of impertinence.
Hence Tasked ppl. a.; Tasking vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1543. Harding’s Chron., CXVI. viii. P vj b. Saint Edmundes landes he hurt by great taskyng [Bodl. MSS. taxinge] And tallage.
1812. Tasked work [see TASKER 3 b].
1848. Lowell, Vision Sir Launfal, I. Prelude, 28. Bubbles we buy with a whole soul’s tasking.
1852. D. G. Mitchell, Dream Life, 199. The fruits … hanging heavily from the tasked trees.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 435. It is the driver’s duty to make the tasked hands do their work well.
1872. J. S. Blackie, Ascent Cruachan, v., in Lays Highl., 103. We have done our tasking bravely, With the thews of Scottish men.
