Also 8–9 (now U.S.) leveling. [f. LEVEL v. + -ING1.]
1. Aiming, aim.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Visée, leuelling.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 429. A smooth stone, by which I may, if the Lord shall please so to blesse my leuelling, smite this Goliah in the forehead.
1627. trans. Bacon’s Life & Death (1651), 50. Our Aiming and Levelling at the End.
1796–7. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 263. In the firings, the loading is quick, the levelling is just.
2. The action of bringing to a uniform horizontal surface; the action of placing in an accurately horizontal position by means of a level.
1598. [see 4 below].
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 105. The Words Dressing, Leveling … signify the Action of harrowing or raking the Ground, to lay it every where smooth and eaven.
1786. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 260. The levelling of the streets.
1861. G. M. Musgrave, By-roads & Battle-Fl., 289. The levelling of two or three hills, and the filling in of a few ravines.
b. fig. (See LEVEL v. 3.) Also with up, down.
1618. J. Smith, Lives Berkeleys (1883), II. 417. I have, for 550 years, traced the waies wherein they severally walked, for the better levelling of the life of the present lord George.
1658. Harrington, Prerog. Pop. Govt., I. xi. 84. By Levelling, they who use the word, seem to understand, when a People rising invades the Lands and Estates of the richer sort, and divides them equally among themselves.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., III. 476. The Jews … disdained such a Levelling with People held by them in the utmost Contempt.
1831. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. To Shade of Elliston. O ignoble levelling of Death!
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. V. iv. Levelling is comfortable but only down to oneself.
1869. Dowden, Stud. Lit. (1890), 353. Thus, by a process of levelling-up, Lamennais made the supernatural, in the ordinary sense of the word, disappear.
1888. Sweet, Hist. Eng. Sounds, Pref. p. vi. To justify Rapp’s and Ellis’s levelling of Chaucer’s long es under one sound.
3. Surveying. (See quot. 1887.)
1812–6. Playfair, Nat. Phil. (1819), I. 169. Levelling is the art of drawing a line at the surface of the earth, to cut the directions of gravity every where at right angles.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 293. The levellings recently carried across that isthmus … to ascertain the relative height of the Pacific Ocean at Panama.
1831. Lardner, Hydrost., iv. 72. Instruments for levelling or determining the direction or position of horizontal lines.
1887. Gen. Walker, in Encycl. Brit., XXII. 707. Levelling is the art of determining the relative heights of points on the surface of the ground as referred to a hypothetical surface which cuts the direction of gravity everywhere at right angles…. The trigonometrical determination of the relative heights of points at known distances apart by the measurements of their mutual angles … is a method of levelling. But the method to which the term ‘levelling’ is always applied is that of the direct determination of the differences of height from the readings of the lines at which graduated staves, held vertically over the points, are cut by the horizontal plane which passes through the eye of the observer.
4. attrib.: levelling-instrument, an instrument used in surveying and consisting essentially of a telescope fitted with a spirit-level; levelling pole, rod, staff, an instrument, consisting essentially of a graduated pole with a vane sliding upon it, used in levelling; † levelling-rule = LEVEL sb.1; levelling-screw, a screw used to adjust parts of a contrivance to an exact level; levelling-stand (Photography), an instrument used to support a glass plate in a horizontal position.
1690. Leybourn, Curs. Math., 456 b. The *Levelling Instrument to be used in this Work.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 1087. Theodolites,… sextants, levelling instruments.
1598. Florio, Scandaglio, a plummet, or line to sounde with, a *leuelling rule.
1849. R. V. Dixon, Heat, I. 51. A strong T-shaped bar of iron, furnished with two levels, and placed on a board provided with *levelling screws.
1866. R. M. Ferguson, Electr. (1870), 19. Upon a tripod provided with levelling screws stands the pillar.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., *Levelling Staves, are instruments used in levelling; serving to carry marks to be observed, and at the same time to measure the heights of those marks from the ground.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Leveling-stand.
1890. Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., III. 220. The solution may be flowed on and off the plate or the plate placed on a levelling stand.
