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ce and equity; violation of the rights of another or others; iniquity; wrong; unfairness; imposition. If this people [the Athenians] resembled Nero in their extravagance, much more did they resemble and even exceed him in cruelty and injustice. Burke.

A book formerly used by priests hearing confessions, containing rules for the imposition of penances; -- called also penitential book.

Priestly policy; the policy of a priesthood; esp., in an ill sense, fraud or imposition in religious concerns; management by priests to gain wealth and power by working upon the religious motives or credulity of others. It is better that men should be governed by priestcraft than by violence. Macaulay.…

protecting the producers in a country from foreign competition in the home market by the imposition of such discriminating duties on goods of foreign production as will restrict or prevent their importation; -- opposed to free trade. Writ of protection. (Law) (a) A writ by which the king formerly exempted a person fro…

To ease of any imposition, burden, wrong, or oppression, by judicial or legislative interposition, as by the removal of a grievance, by indemnification for losses, or the like; to right.

o evade, offical restrictions; to smuggle; -- said of contraband or dutiable goods. heavy impositions . . . are a strong temptation of running goods. Swift.

An imposition; a cheat; a hoax. [Colloq.]

To obtrude by fraud or imposition. [R.] We must have a care that we do not . . . sham fallacies upon the world for current reason. L'Estrange.

ip letter, a letter conveyed by a ship not a mail packet. -- Ship money (Eng. Hist.), an imposition formerly charged on the ports, towns, cities, boroughs, and counties, of England, for providing and furnishing certain ships for the king's service. The attempt made by Charles I. to revive and enforce this tax was resi…

A trick played upon a person; an imposition. [R.]

Fig.: To deprive of something by imposition. "How came such multitudes of our nation . . . to be sponged of their plate and their money" South.

To make foolish; to make a fool of; as, to stultify one by imposition; to stultify one's self by silly reasoning or conduct. Burke.

To expose; to make obnoxious or liable; as, credulity subjects a person to impositions.

Deceit; fraud; imposition. [Obs. & R.]

One who swindles, or defrauds grossly; one who makes a practice of defrauding others by imposition or deliberate artifice; a cheat.

Any imposition levied by the king, or any other lord, upon his subjects. The taille, as it still subsists in France, may serve as an example of those ancient tallages. It was a tax upon the profits of the farmer, which they estimate by the stock that he has upon the farm. A. Smith.

Imposition; fraud. [Colloq.]

The act of taking advantage of the ignorance of a person; an imposition. [Prov. Eng.] Trail boards (Shipbuilding), the carved boards on both sides of the cutwater near the figurehead. -- Trail net, a net that is trailed or drawn behind a boat. Wright.