levee
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK)IPA(key):/ˈlɛvi/,/ˈlɛv.eɪ/
Audio(Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes:-ɛvi,-ɛveɪ
- Homophone:levy(some pronunciations only)
- (US)enPR:lev'i,IPA(key):/ˈlɛvi/,/ləˈvi/,/ləˈveɪ/
- Rhymes:-ɛvi
- Homophones:levy,Levy
Etymology 1
[edit]FromFrenchlevée,fromlever(“to raise, rise”).
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Sacramento_River_Levee.jpg/220px-Sacramento_River_Levee.jpg)
Noun
[edit]levee(plurallevees)
- An elevated geographical feature.
- Anembankmentto preventinundation;as, the levees along the Mississippi.
- (US)The steepbankof ariver.
- (US)Theborderof anirrigatedfield.
- (US)Apieror otherlandingplace on a river.
Synonyms
[edit]Translations
[edit]embankment to prevent inundation
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steep bank of a river
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Verb
[edit]levee(third-person singular simple presentlevees,present participleleveeing,simple past and past participleleveed)
- (US,transitive)To keep within achannelby means of levees.
- toleveea river
Translations
[edit]to levee a river
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Etymology 2
[edit]FromFrenchlevévariant of the nounlever(“the act of getting up in the morning”).
Noun
[edit]levee(plurallevees)
- (obsolete)The act ofrising;getting up, especially in the morning after rest.
- c. 1763,Thomas Gray,letter to Mr. Nichols
- And look before you were up in the morning, though you were a punctual courtier at the sun'slevee
- 1749,Henry Fielding,Tom Jones,Folio Society, published1973,page414:
- The sturdy hind now attends theleveeof his fellow-labourer the ox[…]
- c. 1763,Thomas Gray,letter to Mr. Nichols
- Areceptionof visitors held after getting up.
- Aformalreception,especially one given byroyaltyor other leaders.
- 1834,L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon],chapter XV, inFrancesca Carrara.[…],volume II, London:Richard Bentley,[…],(successor toHenry Colburn),→OCLC,page179:
- I must take my leave, for the Cardinal holds aleveeto-day, and let those fail in attendance who want nothing.
Verb
[edit]levee(third-person singular simple presentlevees,present participleleveeing,simple past and past participleleveed)
- (transitive)To attend the levee or levees of.
- 1725–1728,[Edward Young], “(please specify the page)”,inLove of Fame, the Universal Passion. In Seven Characteristical Satires,4th edition, London:[…]J[acob]and R[ichard]Tonson[…],published1741,→OCLC:
- Heleveesall the great.
Anagrams
[edit]Old French
[edit]Verb
[edit]levee
Categories:
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛvi
- Rhymes:English/ɛvi/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɛveɪ
- Rhymes:English/ɛveɪ/2 syllables
- English terms with homophones
- English terms derived from French
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- American English
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with quotations
- Old French non-lemma forms
- Old French past participle forms