Also erron. læv-. [f. L. lēvigāt-, ppl. stem of lēvigāre to make smooth, f. lēvis (sometimes erron. lævis) smooth.]
† 1. trans. To make smooth; to polish. Obs.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 70. White starch … levigateth the parts exasperated.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vii. 121. By reason of their lenifying and detersiue faculty, [they] … leuigate the roughnesse of the winde-pipe.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, 410. A stone turned, rolled, and tossed about, to smooth, and levigate every side thereof.
1676. Boyle, New Exper., II. in Phil. Trans., XI. 805. To enable them, by the help of Gravity,… to levigate … or polish each others surfaces.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., XII. 95. No mortal man might climb it or descend … For it is levigated as by art.
1811. Self Instructor, 536. Bran … levigates its surface.
1826, 1835. [see LEVIGATED ppl. a.].
† b. in immaterial sense. Obs.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. i. 314. The turning of a tender melting B. into a surly rigid R. is not to levigate or mollifie but to make the name harder in pronunciation.
1794. Mrs. Piozzi, Synon., I. 374. Such a soul levigated by prosperity soon mounts into airiness of temper.
2. To reduce to a fine smooth powder; to rub down; to make a smooth paste of (with some liquid).
1694. Salmon, Bate’s Dispens. (1713), 334/1. Levigate it upon a Marble, till it becomes an impalpable Powder.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 181. Some have got the Art of levigating the testaceous Powders.
1782–3. W. F. Martyn, Geog. Mag., I. 9. Levigating it with the oil of sweet almonds.
1802. A. Ellicott, Jrnl. (1803), 245. Shells, and other calcareous matter, levigated by the friction of the particles.
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 345. It is sufficient to levigate them with water to obtain them very white.
1824. Mech. Mag., No. 30. 32. Machinery for Levigating or Grinding Colours.
1894. Smiles, J. Wedgwood, ii. 15. This clay, carefully levigated,… yielded a red ware.
fig. 1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., I. 1153. He … makes logic levigate the big crime small.
Hence Levigating vbl. sb. (attrib.) and ppl. a.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 272. A Levigating Lohoch.
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Art, II. 67. Mix it with a levigating knife with spirits of wine.
1812–6. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 787. The glue is then to be put warm on a levigating stone, and kneaded with quicklime.
