tithe

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tithe / tī[voicedth]/ • n. one tenth of annual produce or earnings, formerly taken as a tax for the support of the church and clergy. ∎  (in certain religious denominations) a tenth of an individual's income pledged to the church. ∎  [in sing.] archaic a tenth of a specified thing: he hadn't said a tithe of the prayers he knew.• v. [tr.] pay or give as a tithe: he tithes 10 percent of his income to the church. ∎ hist. subject to a tax of one tenth of income or produce.DERIVATIVES: tith·a·ble adj.ORIGIN: Old English tēotha (adjective in the ordinal sense ‘tenth,’ used in a specialized sense as a noun), tēothian (verb).

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