See cess in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"etymology_text": "For the first meaning below, the writings of Edmund Spenser, published 1633, point to a borrowing from Irish cís (“tax, tribute, cess, rent”), likely from Latin census.\nOther senses: Uncertain. Occurs in print at least as early as 1831, when Samuel Lover used the expression as one already long-established. He unambiguously stated the derivation of cess in the malediction bad cess to be an abbreviation of success. The OED speculated that it either was from success or from assessment meaning a military or governmental exaction. The verb is attested in Middle English (cessen).",
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"ref": "1595-1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the State of Ireland as it was in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth:",
"text": "EUDOX[US] But what is that which you call Cess? it is a Word sure unused amongst us here; therefore (I pray you) expound the same. IREN[EUS] Cess is none other than that which you yourself called Imposition, but is in a kind unacquainted perhaps unto you; for there are Cesses of sundry sorts: one is the Cessing of Soldiers upon the Countrey; [...] Another kind of Cess is, the imposing of Provisions for the Governours Housekeeping, [...]",
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"text": "The act provides for a levy of a cess on all coal and coke despatched from collieries in India, at such rate, not less than twenty-five paise and not more than fifty paise per ton, as may be fixed by the Central Government.",
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"ref": "2006, The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Georg Thieme Verlag, page 76:",
"text": "Therefore it was proposed to levy a cess on local authorities which are entrusted with the duty of supplying water under the law by or under which they are constituted and on certain specified industries.",
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"ref": "2025 September 5, Jagriti Chandra, “Cars get cheaper, festive sales likely to hit top gear. Sub-4 metre cars with engines below 1,200 cc and 1,500 cc to attract 18% GST; dealers expect increased buyer interest in price-sensitive segments; bigger cars will invite a 40% GST, but removal of cess will boost net savings on purchase”, in The Hindu:",
"text": "The Goods and Services Tax (GST) overhaul will make cars cheaper this festive season across segments. Entry-level and mid-segment cars priced up to ₹14 lakh will see up to a 13% reduction in GST and cess, making them more attractive to a price-sensitive customer base. High-end cars with engines above 1200 cc are set to become 5–10% cheaper. Small cars that run on petrol, LPG and CNG with engines below 1200 cc, and diesel cars of up to 1500 cc and with a length under 4 metres will attract a GST of 18% instead of 28%. The cess of 1% and 3% will no longer be applicable.",
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"glosses": [
"An assessed tax, duty, or levy; billeting."
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"id": "en-cess-en-noun-Bsi458OA",
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"(British, Ireland, India) An assessed tax, duty, or levy; billeting."
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"ref": "1852 November, O’Hara Family, “Clough Fionn; or, The Stone of Destiny”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume XL, number CCXXXIX, Dublin: James McGlashan, […]; London: W[illia]m S[omerville] Orr and Company, →OCLC, chapter XI, page 557:",
"text": "\"Bad cess may attend you, where are you scampering to, you rambunctious\"—but she could go no farther; the tears burst from her, and she gave way, without farther resistance, to an explosion of grief.",
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"ref": "1962, News for Farmer Cooperatives, Information Office, Farm Credit Administration:",
"text": "Midland has had good cess with using minute commercials eight television stations, cited as one example of modernizing its advertising.",
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"ref": "1965, Canada Month:",
"text": "It is good cess to feel the warmth and sincerity of this couple who fill the role of the Queen's representative in Canada.",
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"ref": "2004, Kevin O'Malley, Inside, →ISBN, page 37:",
"text": "Bad cess to it, b'ys! Where's the blessed ting, at all, at all? Bad cess to it!",
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"Usually preceded by good or (more commonly) bad: luck or success."
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"(British, Ireland, informal) Usually preceded by good or (more commonly) bad: luck or success."
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"ref": "c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:",
"text": "The poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess.",
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"glosses": [
"Bound; measure."
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"(obsolete) Bound; measure."
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"text": "...according to the quantity thereof, we may cess the said rent and allowance issuing thereout.",
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"To levy a cess."
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"(British, Ireland) To levy a cess."
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"etymology_text": "Possibly from an archaic dialect word meaning “bog”. According to the OED, from earlier suspiral (“water pipe, setting tank”).",
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"ref": "2022 August 10, Dr Mike Esbester, “New understandings from old incidents”, in RAIL, number 963, page 58:",
"text": "In April 1923, he was working with a gang of five others in Glasgow on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). They were told to walk in the cess. But as it wasn't clear, they walked on the sleepers, each carrying a 70lb lifting screw on his shoulder. McGuinness was struck by a train and killed for want of a safe path.",
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"A bog, in particular a peat bog."
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"(obsolete, dialect) A bog, in particular a peat bog."
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"A piece of peat, or a turf, particularly when dried for use as fuel."
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"etymology_text": "From Middle French cesser. See cease.",
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"text": "And therefore, if there be lord, mesne, and tenant, and the tenant doth cess, and the mesne takes a wife and dies, his wife shall not have dower of the tenancy...",
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"To cease; to neglect."
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"text": "EUDOX[US] But what is that which you call Cess? it is a Word sure unused amongst us here; therefore (I pray you) expound the same. IREN[EUS] Cess is none other than that which you yourself called Imposition, but is in a kind unacquainted perhaps unto you; for there are Cesses of sundry sorts: one is the Cessing of Soldiers upon the Countrey; [...] Another kind of Cess is, the imposing of Provisions for the Governours Housekeeping, [...]",
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"text": "The act provides for a levy of a cess on all coal and coke despatched from collieries in India, at such rate, not less than twenty-five paise and not more than fifty paise per ton, as may be fixed by the Central Government.",
"type": "quotation"
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"ref": "2006, The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Georg Thieme Verlag, page 76:",
"text": "Therefore it was proposed to levy a cess on local authorities which are entrusted with the duty of supplying water under the law by or under which they are constituted and on certain specified industries.",
"type": "quotation"
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203
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"ref": "2025 September 5, Jagriti Chandra, “Cars get cheaper, festive sales likely to hit top gear. Sub-4 metre cars with engines below 1,200 cc and 1,500 cc to attract 18% GST; dealers expect increased buyer interest in price-sensitive segments; bigger cars will invite a 40% GST, but removal of cess will boost net savings on purchase”, in The Hindu:",
"text": "The Goods and Services Tax (GST) overhaul will make cars cheaper this festive season across segments. Entry-level and mid-segment cars priced up to ₹14 lakh will see up to a 13% reduction in GST and cess, making them more attractive to a price-sensitive customer base. High-end cars with engines above 1200 cc are set to become 5–10% cheaper. Small cars that run on petrol, LPG and CNG with engines below 1200 cc, and diesel cars of up to 1500 cc and with a length under 4 metres will attract a GST of 18% instead of 28%. The cess of 1% and 3% will no longer be applicable.",
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],
"glosses": [
"An assessed tax, duty, or levy; billeting."
],
"links": [
[
"assess",
"assess"
],
[
"duty",
"duty"
],
[
"levy",
"levy"
],
[
"billeting",
"billeting"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(British, Ireland, India) An assessed tax, duty, or levy; billeting."
],
"tags": [
"British",
"India",
"Ireland"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"British English",
"English informal terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"Irish English"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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5,
9
]
],
"ref": "1852 November, O’Hara Family, “Clough Fionn; or, The Stone of Destiny”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume XL, number CCXXXIX, Dublin: James McGlashan, […]; London: W[illia]m S[omerville] Orr and Company, →OCLC, chapter XI, page 557:",
"text": "\"Bad cess may attend you, where are you scampering to, you rambunctious\"—but she could go no farther; the tears burst from her, and she gave way, without farther resistance, to an explosion of grief.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
21,
25
]
],
"ref": "1962, News for Farmer Cooperatives, Information Office, Farm Credit Administration:",
"text": "Midland has had good cess with using minute commercials eight television stations, cited as one example of modernizing its advertising.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
11,
15
]
],
"ref": "1965, Canada Month:",
"text": "It is good cess to feel the warmth and sincerity of this couple who fill the role of the Queen's representative in Canada.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
4,
8
],
[
68,
72
]
],
"ref": "2004, Kevin O'Malley, Inside, →ISBN, page 37:",
"text": "Bad cess to it, b'ys! Where's the blessed ting, at all, at all? Bad cess to it!",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Usually preceded by good or (more commonly) bad: luck or success."
],
"links": [
[
"good",
"good#English"
],
[
"bad",
"bad#English"
],
[
"luck",
"luck#Noun"
],
[
"success",
"success"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(British, Ireland, informal) Usually preceded by good or (more commonly) bad: luck or success."
],
"tags": [
"British",
"Ireland",
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with obsolete senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
49,
53
]
],
"ref": "c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:",
"text": "The poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Bound; measure."
],
"links": [
[
"Bound",
"bound"
],
[
"measure",
"measure"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete) Bound; measure."
],
"tags": [
"obsolete"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/sɛs/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛs"
},
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}
],
"word": "cess"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English entries with incorrect language header",
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"English terms derived from Middle English",
"English terms derived from Middle French",
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"Pages with 3 entries",
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"Rhymes:English/ɛs/1 syllable"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "bad cess"
},
{
"word": "cessment"
},
{
"word": "good cess"
}
],
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ga",
"3": "cís",
"t": "tax, tribute, cess, rent"
},
"expansion": "Irish cís (“tax, tribute, cess, rent”)",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "la",
"3": "census"
},
"expansion": "Latin census",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en"
},
"expansion": "Uncertain",
"name": "unc"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "Middle English",
"name": "inh"
}
],
"etymology_text": "For the first meaning below, the writings of Edmund Spenser, published 1633, point to a borrowing from Irish cís (“tax, tribute, cess, rent”), likely from Latin census.\nOther senses: Uncertain. Occurs in print at least as early as 1831, when Samuel Lover used the expression as one already long-established. He unambiguously stated the derivation of cess in the malediction bad cess to be an abbreviation of success. The OED speculated that it either was from success or from assessment meaning a military or governmental exaction. The verb is attested in Middle English (cessen).",
"forms": [
{
"form": "cesses",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "cessing",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "cessed",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "cessed",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
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"args": {},
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"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "cease"
},
{
"word": "cessation"
}
],
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{
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"British English",
"English terms with quotations",
"Irish English"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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45,
49
]
],
"ref": "1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the Present State of Irelande:",
"text": "...according to the quantity thereof, we may cess the said rent and allowance issuing thereout.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To levy a cess."
],
"links": [
[
"cess",
"#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(British, Ireland) To levy a cess."
],
"tags": [
"British",
"Ireland"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/sɛs/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛs"
},
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"word": "cess"
}
{
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"Rhymes:English/ɛs/1 syllable"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "cess path"
},
{
"word": "cess heave"
}
],
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_text": "Possibly from an archaic dialect word meaning “bog”. According to the OED, from earlier suspiral (“water pipe, setting tank”).",
"forms": [
{
"form": "cesses",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "cess (plural cesses)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "cesspool"
},
{
"word": "cesspit"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Rail transportation"
],
"examples": [
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149,
153
]
],
"ref": "2022 August 10, Dr Mike Esbester, “New understandings from old incidents”, in RAIL, number 963, page 58:",
"text": "In April 1923, he was working with a gang of five others in Glasgow on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). They were told to walk in the cess. But as it wasn't clear, they walked on the sleepers, each carrying a 70lb lifting screw on his shoulder. McGuinness was struck by a train and killed for want of a safe path.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"The area along either side of a railroad track which is kept at a lower level than the sleeper bottom, in order to provide drainage."
],
"links": [
[
"rail transport",
"rail transport"
],
[
"sleeper",
"sleeper"
],
[
"bottom",
"bottom"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(rail transport) The area along either side of a railroad track which is kept at a lower level than the sleeper bottom, in order to provide drainage."
],
"topics": [
"rail-transport",
"railways",
"transport"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English dialectal terms",
"English terms with obsolete senses"
],
"glosses": [
"A bog, in particular a peat bog."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete, dialect) A bog, in particular a peat bog."
],
"tags": [
"dialectal",
"obsolete"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English dialectal terms",
"English terms with obsolete senses"
],
"glosses": [
"A piece of peat, or a turf, particularly when dried for use as fuel."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete, dialect) A piece of peat, or a turf, particularly when dried for use as fuel."
],
"tags": [
"dialectal",
"obsolete"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/sɛs/"
},
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"rhymes": "-ɛs"
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}
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],
"etymology_number": 3,
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{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "frm",
"3": "cesser"
},
"expansion": "Middle French cesser",
"name": "der"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From Middle French cesser. See cease.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "cesses",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "cessing",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "cessed",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "cessed",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
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"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
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"English terms with obsolete senses",
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Law"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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72,
76
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],
"ref": "1827, John Perkins, A Profitable Book, Treating of the Laws of England:",
"text": "And therefore, if there be lord, mesne, and tenant, and the tenant doth cess, and the mesne takes a wife and dies, his wife shall not have dower of the tenancy...",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To cease; to neglect."
],
"links": [
[
"law",
"law#English"
],
[
"cease",
"cease"
],
[
"neglect",
"neglect"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete, law) To cease; to neglect."
],
"tags": [
"obsolete"
],
"topics": [
"law"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/sɛs/"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛs"
},
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}
],
"word": "cess"
}
Download raw JSONL data for cess meaning in English (15.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-31 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-20 using wiktextract (e97c820 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.