Forms: 4–6 levyathan, (4 -ethan), 5 lyvyatan, -on, 5– leviathan. [a. L. (Vulg.) leviathan, a. Heb. livyāthān.
Some scholars refer the word to a root lāvāh = Arab. laway to twist (cf. livych, conjecturally rendered ‘wreath’); others think it adopted from some foreign lang.]
1. The name of some aquatic animal (real or imaginary) of enormous size, frequently mentioned in Hebrew poetry.
1382. Wyclif, Job xl[i.] 20 [21]. Whether maist thou drawen out leuyethan with an hoc?
1535. Coverdale, Ps. ciii[i.] 26. There is that Leuiathan, whom thou hast made, to take his pastyme therin.
1555. Eden, Decades, To Rdr. (Arb.), 51. The greate serpente of the sea Leuiathan, to haue suche dominion in the Ocean.
1591. Spenser, Vis. World’s Van., 62. The huge Leuiathan, dame Natures wonder.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 412. Leviathan, Hugest of living Creatures, on the Deep Stretcht like a Promontorie.
1713. Young, Last Day, I. 35. Leviathans but heave their cumb’rous mail, It makes a tide.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XII. 119. She [Scylla] makes the huge leviathan her prey.
b. transf.; esp. = a ship of huge size.
[1801[?]. Campbell, Battle of the Baltic, ii. Like leviathans afloat.]
1816. J. Scott, Vis. Paris (ed. 5), 91. They [floating baths] … stretch their long sprawling forms on the water, like so many painted Leviathans.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. clxxxi. The oak leviathans.
1858. Bright, Sp., Reform, 21 Dec. (1876), 312. Your splendid river, bearing the leviathans of noble architecture, constructed on its banks.
1892. Suffling, Land of the Broads (ed. 2), 13. These immense winged leviathans [wherries].
c. fig. A man of vast and formidable power or enormous wealth.
1607. Dekker, Knts. Conjur. (1842), 60. The lacquy of this great leuiathan promisde he should be maister.
c. 1630. Sanderson, Serm., II. 310. So can the Lord deal … with the great … leviathans of the world.
1782. Pennant, Journ. Chester to Lond., 96. The leviathan who swallowed these manors, was Sir William Paget.
1796. Burke, Let. Noble Lord, Wks. VIII. 35. The duke of Bedford is the leviathan among all the creatures of the crown.
1839. De Quincey, Recoll. Lakes, Wks. 1862, II. 155. A legal contest with so potent a defendant as this leviathan of two counties.
1884. Punch, 1 March, 97/1. Punters, plungers, leviathans, little men.
† 2. (After Isa. xxvii. 1.) The great enemy of God, Satan. Obs.
[1382. Wyclif, Isa. xxvii. 1. In that dai viseten shal the Lord in his harde swerd,… vp on leuyathan,… a crookid wounde serpent.]
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 4423. This fende was the first þat felle for his pride … þat lyuyaton is cald.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. xvii. The vile serpent the Leuiathan.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 150. By the envye deceyvyd of hys enmy Clepyd serpent behemot or levyathan.
1595. B. Barnes, Spir. Sonn., li. Breake thou the jawes of olde Levyathan, Victorious Conqueror!
3. Used by Hobbes for: The organism of political society, the commonwealth. (See quot. 1651.)
1651. Hobbes, Leviath. (1839), 158. The multitude so united in one person, is called a Commonwealth…. This is the generation of that great Leviathan, or rather, to speak more reverently, of that mortal god, to which we owe under the immortal God, our peace and defence.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes, 20. What it is that makes up … harmony in that Leviathan, a well governed Commonwealth.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., I. iii. (1695), 17. An Hobbist … will answer; Because … the Leviathan will punish you, if you do not.
1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1725), I. 195. The gods have … design’d that millions of you, when well joyn’d together, should compose the strong Leviathan.
4. attrib. passing into adj. with sense: Huge, monstrous.
1624. Middleton, Game at Chess, II. ii. This leviathan-scandal that lies rolling Upon the crystal waters of devotion.
1751. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 398. I had suspected that this leviathan hall must have devoured half the other chambers.
1861. A. Smith, Med. Stud., 12. He has duly chronicled every word … in his leviathan note-book.
1892. W. Beatty-Kingston, Intemper., v. 32. The leviathan liquor interests.
Hence Leviathanic a., huge as a leviathan.
1848. Tait’s Mag., XV. 789/1. The leviathanic railway that stretches out its fins amongst its contemporaries like Captain M‘Quhae’s sea-serpent.
1851. H. Melville, Moby-Dick, lxxxviii. 436. While he is always of the largest leviathanic proportions, the ladies, even at full growth, are not more than one third of the bulk of an average-sized male.
