verb. (common).—To abscond. TO DO (or THROW or RUN) A LEVANT (gaming) = to stake and SKIP (q.v.). Fr. faire voile en Levant; It. andare in Levante. See quots. 1714 and 1823.
1714. T. LUCAS, Memoirs of Gamesters, etc., 111. He hath ventur’d to come the LEVANT over Gentlemen; that is, to play without any Money at all in his Pocket.
1729. VANBRUGH and CIBBER, The Provoked Husband, i. Crowd to the Hazard table, THROW A familiar LEVANT upon some sharp lurching man of quality, and if he demands his money, turn it off with a loud laugh.
1749. FIELDING, Tom Jones, Bk. VIII. ch. 12. Never mind that, man! E’en RUN A LEVANT.
1788. G. A. STEVENS, The Adventures of a Speculist, i. 96. This [cheating described] at Hazard-table is called LEVANTING.
1823. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd ed.). LEVANTING, or RUNNING A LEVANT, an expedient practised by broken gamesters to retrieve themselves, and signifies to bet money at a race, cock-match, etc., without a shilling in their pocket to answer the event. The punishment … is curious: the offender is placed in a large basket … hoisted up to the ceiling … and … then kept suspended … exposed to derision, during the pleasure of the company.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Lay of St. Odille,’ i. 244.
| —When he found she’d LEVANTED, the Count of Alsace | |
| At first turn’d remarkably red in the face. |
1880. A. TROLLOPE, The Duke’s Children, ch. xlix. Was it not clear that a conspiracy might have been made without his knowledge;—and clear also that the real conspirators had LEVANTED?
1883. Referee, 25 March, p. 3, col. 2. The late manager of the ‘Vic.,’ it appears, LEVANTED with over £100 of the money belonging to the committee.
1887. Daily Telegraph, 12 March. Whom he would compel to lodge a considerable sum as caution money, so that in the event of one of the body LEVANTING, there would be wherewithal to pay his creditors.
1892. Globe, 2 April, p. 2, col. 1. If he could only lay his hands on LEVANTING Brown!
