Forms: 6 leverette, leav-, lyveret, 7 leverit, levoret, levart, -et, -it, 5– leveret. [ad. OF. levrete, levrette, dim. of levre (F. lièvre) hare.]
1. A young hare, strictly one in its first year.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 592/22. Lepusculus, a leveret.
1544. Phaër, Regim. Lyfe (1553), H vj b. The mawe of a yong leuerette with the iuice of plantaine, is excedinge profitable.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 211. In ancient time, if the Hunters had taken a young Leverit, they let her go again in the honour of Diana.
1688. J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVIII. 123. I have seen Leverets there with the white spot in the Head, which the Old ones have not.
1759. Johnson, Idler, No. 81, ¶ 6. [It] is the claim … of the vulture to the leveret.
1814. Cary, Dante’s Inf., XXIII. 16. More fell They shall pursue us, than the savage hound Snatches the leveret.
1835. Grimshawe. Life Cowper (1865), 35/2. On his expressing a wish to divert himself by rearing a single leveret,… his neighbours supplied him with three.
† 2. transf. and fig. a. A pet, a mistress. b. A spiritless person. Obs.
1617. S. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely (1628), 54. Theres a Leuite of the Iesuits, or a prettie leuorite rather, to sucke a Kings heart-blood in time.
1630. Lennard, trans. Charron’s Wisd., III. iii. § 28 (1670), 371. Arrogant Boasters,… leverets in dangers.
1637. Shirley, Gamester, I. i. Some wife will bid her husband’s leverets welcome.
1640. Dk. Newcastle, Country Capt., II. i. (1649), 23. You meane, one wenche betweene us too is nothing: I know a hundred Leveretts.
3. attrib.: leveret-skin, a Japanese glaze applied to ceramic ware, supposed to resemble leveret’s fur. (In recent Dicts.)
