Also leveling. [f. LEVEL v. + -ING2.] That levels; esp. bringing all to the same social, moral or intellectual level; also, of or pertaining to levellers and their principles.
a. 1635. Sibbes, Confer. Christ & Mary (1656), 63. If God be a Father, and we be brethren, it is a levelling word, it bringeth mountains down, and filleth up vallies.
1648. Boyle, Seraph. Love, xi. (1700), 56. So familiar and levelling an affection as Love.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., x. § 136. The barbarity of the Agitators and the levelling party.
1763. Johnson, in Boswell, 21 July. I … showed her the absurdity of the levelling doctrine.
1796. Burke, Let. Noble Lord, Wks. VIII. 39. A levelling tyrant, who oppressed all descriptions of his people.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Compensation, Wks. (Bohn), I. 42. There is always some levelling circumstance that puts down the overbearing, the strong, the rich, the fortunate.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, I. vi. If anything can save the aristocracy, in this levelling age, it is an appreciation of men of genius.
