[? ad. Sp. levant-ar to lift (levantar la casa to break up housekeeping, levantar el campo to break up the camp), f. levar:—L. levāre to lift.]
1. intr. To steal away, ‘bolt.’ Now esp. of a betting man or gamester: To abscond.
1797. Mary Robinson, Walsingham (1805), IV. xc. 261. She found that the sharps would dish me, and levanted without even bidding me farewell.
1809. Sporting Mag., XXXIV. 57. [He] must produce a certificate that he has never levanted at any race-course.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xxxix. One day we shall hear of one or other levanting.
1863. Miss Braddon, Eleanor’s Vict., III. xix. 289. The clerk had levanted before his employer returned from America.
1880. V. L. Cameron, Our Future Highway, I. iii. 46. He took the opportunity of his host falling asleep to levant.
† 2. trans. Only in Levant me!, a mild form of imprecation. Obs.
1760. Foote, Minor, I. Wks. 1799, I. 241. Levant me, but he got enough last night to purchase a principality.
Hence Levanting vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. Speculist, I. 96. This [sc. gaming when one will not be able to pay in the event of losing] at Hazard-table is called Levanting.
1847. Thackeray, Brighton, ii. Guttlebury House was shut up by the lamented levanting of the noble Earl. Ibid. (1855), Newcomes, II. 314. The levanting auctioneer’s wife.
1866. Miss Braddon, Lady’s Mile, i. 1. Distracted by vague fears of levanting tenants and bad debts.
