(and quasi-adj.) Also (in sense 4 b) 6 levand, 7 leven. [a. F. levant, pres. pple. of lever to rise, used subst. for the point where the sun rises; hence as in senses 1 and 2. (In Milton stressed le·vant.)]
1. Geog. † a. The countries of the East. The High Levant = the far East (cf. HIGH a. 3). Cloth of Levant = BEZETTA (see quot. 1558). Obs. b. spec. The eastern part of the Mediterranean, with its islands and the countries adjoining.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 218. A viage to be made into the levaunt.
1558. Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secr., IV. 80. To make a kinde of cloth, called cloth of Leuant wherwith women vse to colour their faces.
1561. Eden, Arte Nauig., III. i. 54 b. The Hydrographers … haue chaunged the names, Callyng the Leuant or Orient, East. The Ponent or Occident, West.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 99. My voiage to the lands of Candia and Chio in the Leuant.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xvi. § 2. It is the use of China, and the Kingdoms of the High Levant.
1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2320/3. Not to allow Pratique to any Ships coming from the Levant.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Levant, in geography, signifies any country situate to the east of us.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 453/1. Levant … is also commonly used … to designate the eastern or Asiatic shores of that sea [the Mediterranean].
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, v. (1864), 66. That Grecian race against which you will be cautioned so carefully as soon as you touch the Levant.
2. An easterly wind blowing up the Mediterranean; a levanter. ? Obs.
1628. Digby, Voy. Medit. (1868), 81. The 29. there came a fresh gale att S. E.; which … blowed constantely a strong Leuante.
1693. Dryden’s Juvenal, xiv. (1697), 367. Carpathian Gale…. We term it at Sea, a strong Levant.
1762. More, in Phil. Trans., LII. 450. Setting sail with a light Levant, to pass the strait to the westward.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Levant, a wind coming from the east, which freshens as the sun rises.
3. A kind of leather = Levant morocco (see 4 b).
1880. Times, 25 Sept., 4/5. The leathers known, from their first places of production, as Levants, Memels and Cordovans.
4. attrib. and Comb.: a. passing into adj. with sense ‘east-, eastern,’ as levant sea, wind.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 129. It begins at the Levant sea of Oriental Indians.
1657. Howell, Londinop., 386. She is built upon the utmost levant point of Europe.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 704. Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent Windes.
1691. Lond. Gaz., No. 2655/2. She was driven by a strong Levant Wind from her Anchor in that Bay.
1798. Lady Hunter, 16 Nov., in Jrnl. Sir M. & Lady Hunter (1894), 131. Some days before the rain came we had what they call a levant wind.
1819. H. Busk, Vestriad, III. 656. Breathless, the ponent wind in vain he plies, Nor can the levant lift him.
b. (sense 1 b, ‘pertaining to or coming from the Levant’), as Levant feathers, morocco, sea, skin, taffeta, thrift (a plant).
1503–4. Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. (1900), II. 239. Tua gret beddis of levand fedderis.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. clxxvii. § 2. 482. Caryophyllus Mediterraneus Leuant Thrift, or Lea Gilloflower.
a. 1625. Beaum. & Fl., Wit without M., II. iv. A sharpe Prognostication that shal scowre them … like leven taffaties.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3719/4. The Hon. Company of Merchants Trading to the Levant Seas.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages, ix. II. (1819), III. 391. Sanuto … has left us a curious account of the Levant trade.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 88. The French have the pre-eminence in the species of Levant skins marked with a handsome full-grain.
Mod. Bookseller’s Catal., Choicely bound in half crimson levant morocco.
