[f. LEVEL sb.]
A. adj.
1. Having an even surface; ‘not having one part higher than another’ (J.).
1538. Elyot, Dict., Planities, a playne or leuell grounde.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 83. In any levell and plaine place, with your compasse make a circle.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. i. 47. That one might … see the reuolution of the Times Make Mountaines leuell.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 98. On the level brine.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 21. The Hearth of a Chimney ought to lie levell, without a border, raised hearths being dangerous.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, XX. 272. Along the level Seas they flew.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 261. We found the vale fruitful, level, and inhabited.
1835. Alison, Hist. Europe (1849–50), IV. xxv. § 17. 429. Switzerland … comprises the undulating level surface between the Alps and the Jura.
1840. Lardner, Geom., 186. A cylindrical roller passing in one direction only will not produce a level surface.
1871. Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 92. The level waves of broad Garonne.
b. fig. Of quantities: Expressed in whole numbers. Of a race: Showing no difference between the competitors. (Cf. EVEN a. 16.)
1826. Sporting Mag., XVIII. 316. At the close it was considered a level thing.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, Level Tons, weight of mineral wrought in tons, any odd cwts. not being taken into account.
2. Lying in a plane coinciding with or parallel to the plane of the horizon; horizontal; perpendicular to the plumb-line. Level lines (Shipbuilding): see quot. 1850.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 137. Placing your Instrument (which I name a Geographicall plaine Sphere) Flat, and levell.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. 70. The first … graze of the Bullet on the Level-Line, or on the Ground called the Horizontal Plain.
1679. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 126. The Work is Level.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., When the instrument is level.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 129. Level lines. Lines determining the shape of a ship’s body horizontally, or square from the middle line of the ship.
187[?]. Dict. Archit. (Archit. Publ. Soc.), s.v., As applied to a line, this word means any which lies at right angles to one drawn to the centre of the earth, or to a plumb line; or any line which is parallel to the horizon. As applied to a plane, the term ‘level’ signifies any in which all lines drawn in any direction are level lines as before defined.
3. Lying in the same horizontal plane as something else; on a level with. Also fig., on an equality with; readily accessible or intelligible to.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 16. So that a man inhabiting under … th’equinoctial, do perceive both … the North pole, and … the South, levell with th’earth.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iv. 7. Euery thing lyes leuell to our wish. Ibid. (1606), Ant. & Cl., IV. xv. 66. Young Boyes and Gyrles Are leuell now with men.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., I. iii. 8. He overshoots such low matter as lie levell to a womans eye.
1643. Caryl, Sacr. Covt., 14. All our actions ought to be levell with reason.
1703. Dampier, Voy., III. 32. Just by the Landing-place there is a small Fort, almost level with the Sea.
1729. Butler, Serm. Ignor. Man, Wks. 1874, II. 207. We should … apply ourselves to that which is level to our capacities.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, V. 11. When the tall trees … Lie level with the earth to moulder there.
1864. Lowell, Biglow P., Poet. Wks. (1879), 228. Lincoln was master … of a truly masculine English,… level at once to the highest and lowest of his countrymen.
1888. Sweet, Hist. Eng. Sounds, Pref. p. vii. I have done my best to keep level with the latest results of foreign investigation.
b. Level crossing: a place at which a road and a railway, or two railways, cross each other at the same level. Also attrib.
1841. Brees, Gloss. Civil Engin., Level or Paved Crossing (on a railway).
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 117. Simultaneously-acting level-crossing gates for railways.
1879. Sala, in Daily Tel., 26 Dec. The perils of level-crossings.
1895. Law Times, C. 133/2. A man who had been killed at a level crossing by a railway train.
4. Of two or more things with respect to one another: Situated in the same level or plane. Also fig.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. iii. 118. Where qualities were leuell.
1795. J. Phillips, Hist. Inland Navig., 8. To raise or fall Vessels out of one Canal into another, where they are not level.
1820. Keats, Eve St. Agnes, iv. The level chambers … Were glowing to receive a thousand guests.
b. Equal in quantity or position. slang.
1894. Astley, 50 Years Life, II. 328. I’ll toss yer who pays for level drinks.
5. Lying, moving or directed in an (approximately) horizontal plane: esp. poet., e.g., of the rays of the sun when it is low down on the horizon.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 634. He … Now shaves with level wing the Deep, now soares [etc.].
1760. Beattie, Virg. Past., II. 108. The setting sun now beams more mildly bright, The shadows lengthening with the level light.
1801. Campbell, Hohenlinden, 21. Scarce yon level sun Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, viii. 103. The last level rays were glittering on the stream.
1840. Browning, Sordello, III. 205. The level wind carried above the firs Clouds.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 375. The shafts, being bent, bring the body level when at work.
1885–94. R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, Aug. ii. The level sunbeams search’d the grassy ground For diamond dewdrops.
6. Of even, equable or uniform quality, tone or style; of even tenor.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., I. v. § 21. In which Relation we much commend the even tenour thereof, consisting of so level Lies, that no one swelling Improbability is above the rest.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 211. Their level life is but a mould’ring fire.
1802. Sk. Paris as it was, II. lv. 214. Her voice was formerly very full in the medium or level-speaking; but it seemed like that of a man.
1841. L. Hunt, Seer, II. 62. A passage … delivered … all in a level tone.
1861. Illustr. Lond. News, 7 Dec., 569/3. The best of the pair … a nice level animal.
1873. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma (1876), 212. A very plain and level account.
1894. Field, 1 Dec., 828/1. The owner of a beautifully level pack of hounds.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 56. A leisured and level life.
b. Level-dyeing: a method of dyeing devised to prevent unequal absorption of the coloring matter.
In recent Dicts.
† 7. a. ‘Equipoised, steady’ (Schmidt). Obs.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. i. 123. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of wordes … can thrust me from a leuell consideration. Ibid. (1601), Twel. N., II. iv. 32. Let still the woman take An elder then her selfe, so weares she to him, So swayes she leuell in her husbands heart.
b. Said of the ‘head’ or mental ‘make up’: Well balanced. Orig. U.S.
1870. Orchestra, 12 Aug., 331/1. To tell a woman her head is level is apparently a compliment in America.
1876. Bret Harte, Gabriel Conroy, VI. vii. There is a strong feeling among men whose heads are level that this Minstrel Variety performance is a bluff. Ibid. (1891), 1st Fam. Tasajara, II. 71. Mrs. Ashwood’s head was about as level as it was pretty.
8. Plain, point-blank. rare.
1820. Keats, Lamia, 701. He look’d and look’d again a level—No!
9. One’s level best: one’s very best; the utmost one can possibly do. colloq. or slang; orig. U.S.
1848. Arkansas State Gaz., 27 July, 3/2. He shall not go again to the shoe-shop but shall remain on the public square and do his level best for Bob.
1873. E. E. Hale (title), His Level Best.
1882. Illustr. Sport. News, 29 July, 467/2. His was an honest old hairy-heeled hunter, no doubt, and did her level best.
1885. Rider Haggard, K. Solomon’s Mines (1887), 102. Then came a pause, each man aiming his level best.
10. Comb. (chiefly parasynthetic), as level-topped adj.; level-handed a., having the same amount in hand; level-headed a., having a ‘level’ head, mentally well balanced; level-lander nonce-wd., a dweller on level land.
1835. Ann. Reg., 49. Now we are *level-handed, you’ve got £5, and I’ve got £5.
1879. Tourgee, Fool’s Err., i. 8. Clear-headed, or, as they would now be called, *level-headed, were these children of the Berkshire hills.
1898. S. Lee, Life Shaks., xiv. 245. The terse and caustic comments which Antony’s level-headed friend Enobarbus … passes on the action.
1864. Miss Yonge, Trial, I. 65. ‘Much you know of hills, you *level landers!’
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), IV. 16. Crust forming cylindrical *level-topped bundles.
1847. W. E. Steele, Field Bot., 172. Umbel level-topped.
† B. adv. With direct aim; on a level with. Obs.
1601. Marston, Pasquil & Kath., Wks. 1878, III. 27. Welcome, Basilisco, thou wilt carrie leuell, and knock ones braines out with thy pricking wit.
1602. Shaks., Ham., IV. i. 42. Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter, As level as the cannon to his blank, Transports his poison’s shot. Ibid., v. 151. It shall as leuell to your Iudgement pierce As day do’s to your eye.
1649. Bp. Reynolds, Serm. Hosea, vi. 92. If he mount a canon, and point that levell against the enemie.
1659. Gentl. Calling, I. (1697), 4. If he chuse either to look level on the same nature with himself, or direct his eyes upward.
