scot and lot

American  

noun

1. British History. a municipal tax assessed proportionately upon the members of a community.

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idioms

1. pay scot and lot, to pay in full; settle finally.

scot and lot British  

noun

1. history a municipal tax paid by burgesses and others that came to be regarded as a qualification for the borough franchise in parliamentary elections (until the Reform Act of 1832)

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Etymology

Origin of scot and lot

1275–1325; Middle English, rhyming phrase; see scot, lot

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scot and lot

Look at Northampton, with a franchise more democratic than even the scot and lot franchise.

From Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches — Volume 4 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

It's all very well now—it keeps one on, somehow, and you know it—but I'll pay you off scot and lot by-and-bye.

From Martin Chuzzlewit by Dickens, Charles

Experienced men of the world know very well that it is best to pay scot and lot as they go along, and that a man often pays dear for a small frugality.

From Essays — First Series by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

We must remember, in extenuation, that the executive, the destroying hand of Douglas was over him: “It was time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid him scot and lot too.”

From Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare by Smith, David Nichol

The working classes were represented through those numerous constituencies in which the scot and lot franchise prevailed.

From The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886 by Various