Definition of "octroi" []

• A privilege granted by the sovereign authority, such as the exclusive right of trade granted to a guild or society; a concession. (noun)
• A tax levied in money or kind at the gate of a French city on articles brought within the walls. (noun)

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• "For, while the pressure _per capita_ of the octroi is much greater than it was in 1870, the actual receipts from the _octroi_ were less with a population of"
• "His education would have qualified him for any course of life; and he became an octroi-clerk -- [The octroi is the tax on provisions levied at the entrance of the town] -- in one of the little toll-houses at the entrance of his native town."
• "The unfortunate householder, for example, who is persuaded to keep walking in the conservatory "pour retablir la circulation," and the other who describes himself "sous-chef de bureau dans l'enregistrement," and he who proposes to "faire hommage" of a doubtful turbot to the neighbouring "employe de l'octroi" -- these and all their like speak commonplaces so usual as to lose in their own country the perfection of their dulness."