Also 7 erron. levitor. [a. late L. levātor, agent-n. f. L. levāre to raise.]
1. Anat. A muscle whose function is to raise the part to which it is attached = ELEVATOR 1 a; also attrib., as levator-muscle.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 741. Euery leuator or lifting muscle hath a depressor or sinking muscle.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. xliii. 171. Levator muscles that raise an organ.
1874. Roosa, Dis. Ear (ed. 2), 56. The levator is the largest of the three muscles.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., vi. 262. The large levator muscle of the appendage.
† 2. Surg. An instrument used to raise a depressed portion of bone; = ELEVATOR 2. Obs.
1672. Wiseman, Wounds, I. x. 118. I put in a Levator, and raised up the deprest bone even with the rest.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 398/2. If [acheing teeth] chance to break in the pulling, the Levitor helpeth to prise out the roots.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 176. Two Bones of the Bigness and Figure of a Levator.
1789. T. Whately, in Med. Commun., II. 388. With levators and nippers I separated it piecemeal.
