Dane"geld` (?), 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.

 

© Webster 1913.

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