Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LEV'ANT-INE, n.

A particular kind of silk cloth.

LE-VA'TOR, n. [L. from ero, to raise.]

1. In anatomy, a muscle that serves to raise some part, as the lip or the eyelid.
2. A surgical instrument used to raise a depressed part of the skull. Wiseman.

LEVE,

for Believe. [Obs.] Gower.

LEV'EE, n. [Fr. from lever, to raise, L. levo.]

1. The time of rising.
2. The concourse of persons who visit a prince or great personage in the morning. Johnson.
3. A bank or causey, particularly along a river to prevent inundation; as, the levees along the Mississippi.

LEV'EL, a. [Sax. læfel, id; W. llyrn, smooth, even, level, sleek, slippery; llyuelu, to level, to render uniform, to devise, invent, guess; llyenu, to make smooth. This seems to be connected with llyvu, to lick. So like, D. gelyk, G., gleich, is smooth, even, level, equal, coinciding with Eng. sleek. The L. libella, libra, belong to this root; It. livella.]

1. Horizontal; coinciding with the plane of the horizon. To be perfectly lord, is to be exactly horizontal.
2. Even; flat; not having one part higher than another; not ascending or descending; as, a level plain or field; level ground; a level floor or pavement. In common usage, level is often applied to surfaces that are not perfectly horizontal, but which have no inequalities of magnitude.
3. Even with any thing else; of the same highth; on the same line or plane.
4. Equal in rank or degree; having no degree of superiority. Be level in preferments, and you will soon be as level in your learning. Bentley.

LEV'EL, n.

1. A horizontal line, or a plane; a surface without inequalities. Hale.
2. Rate; standard; usual elevation; customary highth; as, the ordinary level of the world.
3. Equal elevation with something else; a state of equality. Providence, for the must part, sets us on a level. Spectator.
4. The line of direction in which a missile weapon is aimed.
5. An instrument in mechanics by which to find or draw horizontal line, as in setting buildings, or in making canals and drains. The instruments for these purposes are various; as the air level, the carpenter's level, the mason's level and the gunner's level.
6. Rule; plan; scheme; borrowed from the mechanical level. Be the fair level of thy actions laid. Prior.

LEV'EL, v.i.

1. To accord; to agree; to suit. [Little used.] Shak.
2. To aim at; to point a gun or an arrow to the mark.
3. To aim at; to direct the view or purpose. The glory of God and the good of his church, ought to be the mark at which we level. Hooker.
4. To be aimed; to be in the same direction with the mark. He raised it till he level'd right. Butler.
5. To aim; to make attempts. Ambitious York did level at thy crown. Shak.
6. To conjecture; to attempt to guess. [Not used.] Shak.

LEV'EL, v.t.

1. To make horizontal.
2. To make even; to reduce or remove inequalities of surface in any thing; as, to level a road or walk.
3. To reduce or bring to the same highth with something else. And they proud structures level with the ground. Sandys.
4. To lay flat; to reduce to an even surface or plane. He levels mountains, and he raises plains. Dryden.
5. To reduce to equality of condition, state or degree; as, to level all ranks and degrees of men.
6. To point, in taking aim; to elevate or depress so as to direct a missile weapon to an object; to aim; as, to level a cannon or musket.
7. To aim; to direct; as, severe remarks leveled at the vices and follies of the age.
8. To snit; to proportion; as, to level observations to the capacity of children.

LEV'EL-ED, pp.

1. Reduced to a plane; made even.
2. Reduced to an equal state, condition or rank.
3. Reduced to an equality with something else.
4. Elevated or depressed to a right line toward something; pointed to an object; directed to a mark.
5. Suited; proportioned.

LEV'EL-ER, n.

1. One that levels or makes even.
2. One that destroys or attempts to destroy distinctions, and reduce to equality.

LEV'EL-ING, n.

The art or practice of finding a horizontal line, or of ascertaining the different elevations of objects the surface of the earth; in other words, the difference in the distance of objects from the center of the earth. Encyc.

LEV'EL-ING, ppr.

1. Making level or even.
2. Reducing to an equality of condition.

LEV'EL-NESS, n.

1. Evenness; equality of surface.
2. Equality with something else.

LEV'EN,

See LEAVEN.

LEV'EN, n. [Sax. hlifian.]

Lightning. [Obs.] Chaucer.

LEV'ER, n. [Fr. levier; It. leva; from lever, levare, L. levo, to raise.]

In mechanics, a bar of metal, wood, or other substance, turning on a support called the fulcrum or prop. Its arms are equal as in the balance; or unequal, as in steelyards. It is one of the mechanical powers, and is of three kinds, viz. 1. When the fulcrum is between the weight and the power, as in a handspike, crowbar, &c. 2. When the weight is between the power and the fulcrum, as in rowing a boat; 3. When the power is between the weight and the fulcrum, as in raising a ladder from the ground, by applying the hands to one of the lower rounds. The bones of animals are levers of the third kind.

LEV'ER-ET, n. [Fr. lievret, from lievre, a hare.]

A hare in the first year of her age.

LEV'ER-OCK, n.

A bird, a lark. [See Lark.] Johnson.

LEV'ET, n. [Qu. Fr. lever, to raise.]

A blast of a trumpet; probably that by which soldiers are called in the morning. [Not used.] Hudibras.

LEV'I-A-BLE, a. [from levy.]

That may be levied, that may be assessed and collected; as, sums leviable by course of law. Bacon.

LE-VI'A-THAN, n. [Heb. {foreign}.]

1. An aquatic animal, described in the book of Job, ch. xli, and mentioned in other passages of Scripture. In Isaiah, it is called the crooked serpent. It is not agreed what animal is intended by the writers, whether the crocodile, the whale, or a species of serpent.
2. The whale, or a great whale. Milton.

LEV'I-ED, pp.

Raised; collected.

LEV'I-GATE, a.

Made smooth.

LEV'I-GATE, v.t. [L. lærigo, from lævis, smooth, Gr. {foreign}.]

1. In pharmacy and chimistry, to rub or grind to a fine impalpable powder; to make fine, soft and smooth.
2. To plane; to polish. Barrow.

LEV'I-GA-TED, pp.

Reduced to a fine impalpable powder.