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ield; compulsion to give or furnish; a levying by force; a driving to compliance; as, the exaction to tribute or of obedience; hence, extortion. Take away your exactions from my people. Ezek. xlv. 9. Daily new exactions are devised. Shak. Illegal exactions of sheriffs and officials. Bancroft.

Exaction of forced service; compulsion. [Obs.] Speed.

To levy certain exactions or tribute upon; to lodge and eat at the expense of. See Coshering.

s a fee or reward when none is due; -- followed by from or of before the one subjected to exaction; as, to exact tribute, fees, obedience, etc., from or of some one. He said into them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. Luke. iii. 13. Years of servise past From grateful souls exact reward at last Dryden. M…

ing anything from a person by force, by threats, or by any undue exercise of power; undue exaction; overcharge.

roperty unjustly, especially by trickery or frand; to bring to straits by oppressions and exactions. Whilst pope and prince shared the wool betwixt them, the people were finely fleeced. Fuller.

That which is forfeited; a penalty; a fine or mulct. What should I gain By the exaction of the forfeiture Shak.

To oppress by severe exactions; to harass. To grind the subject or defraud the prince. Dryden.

Oppression; cruel exaction; affiction; pinching distress; as, the gripe of poverty.

An excessive, arbitrary, or unlawful exaction; hence, a trick or deception put on laid on others; cheating; fraud; delusion; imposture. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition. Shak.

sonably burdensome; unjustly severe, rigorous, or harsh; as, oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of service; an oppressive game law. Macaulay.

or of toll or tribute. The inferior officers of this class were often oppressive in their exactions, and were regarded with great detestation. As Jesus at meat . . . many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. Matt. 1x. 10. How like a fawning publican he looks! Shak.

That which is extorted; exaction. [Obs.] Sir E. Sandys. Mangle rack. (Mach.) See under Mangle. n. -- Rack block. (Naut.) See def. 1 (f), above. -- Rack lashing, a lashing or binding where the rope is tightened, and held tight by the use of a small stick of wood twisted around. -- Rack rail (Railroads), a toothed rac…

Hence: To practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions. Our country landlords, by unmeasureable screwing and racking their tenants, have already reduced the miserable people to a worse condition than the peasants in France. swift.

To get something advantageous, as money, property, or labor from (any one), by exaction or oppression; as, to sweat a spendthrift; to sweat laborers. [Colloq.] To sweat coin, to remove a portion of a piece of coin, as by shaking it with others in a bag, so that the friction wears off a small quantity of the metal. The…