arch. A collector of taxes.
[1552. Huloet, Taske gatherer, exactor.]
1693. Dryden, Disc. Orig. & Progr. Satire, in Ess. (ed. Ker), II. 77. Casaubon … says that Horace, being the son of a tax-gatherer … smells everywhere of the meanness of his birth.
1771. Goldsm., Hist. Eng. (1789), IV. 271. The oppressions of the tax-gatherers … were considered as so severe, that the army once more rose to vindicate their freedom.
1826. Syd. Smith, Lett. on Cath. Quest., Wks. 1859, II. 232/1. The tax-gatherer is the most indulgent and liberal of human beings;… and is candidly and impartially oppressive to every description of the Christian world.
1904. Expositor, March, 213. Christ … certainly had a taxgatherer for one of his chief disciples.
