Danegelt

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Danegeld \Dane"geld`\, Danegelt \Dane"gelt`\, n. [AS. danegeld.
     See {Dane}, and {Geld}, n.] (Eng. Hist.)
     An annual tax formerly laid on the English nation to buy off
     the ravages of Danish invaders, or to maintain forces to
     oppose them. It afterward became a permanent tax, raised by
     an assessment, at first of one shilling, afterward of two


     shillings, upon every hide of land throughout the realm.
     --Wharton's Law Dict. Tomlins.
     [1913 Webster]