Forms: 4, 6 leve, (6 lewe), 5 levee, 5–6 levie, 6–7 leavie, -y(e, levey, 5– levy. [f. LEVY sb.1 The early form leve may possibly be monosyllabic, and in that case would be a different word (cf. LEAVE v.3), a. F. lever to raise, levy, from which the Eng. vb. levy derives most of its senses.]
1. trans. To raise (contributions, taxes); to impose (an assessment, rate, toll, etc.). Const. † of, on, upon.
1388. Waterf. Arch., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 292. If the Maire … wil not leve and areyse the said xls.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VI. cxcviii. 204. xl. M. li. … was leuyed of his subiectes, and named … Dane Gelt.
1509–10. Act 1 Hen. VIII., c. 19. Preamble, Your said Oratour … levyed severall Fynes of all the foresaid Manours.
1550. Crowley, Epigr., 1205. To leauye greate fines, or to ouer the rent.
1608. Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 60. A sesment of ijs. the pounde shalbe leveyed presently through this parish.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., II. 104. Ship-money was levied with the same severity, and the same rigour used in ecclesiastical courts. Ibid. (a. 1674), Surv. Leviath. (1676), 170. That he hath power to leavy mony.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith. (1690), 30. Bank keepers … must have power to levy upon the general, what they happen to loose unto particular men.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, I. vi. The pension … is levied by the emperor’s officers.
1786. Burke, W. Hastings, Wks. 1842, II. 135. Levying the tribute of the whole on the little that remained.
1828. D’Israeli, Chas. I., II. v. 129. [They] declared, that these rates could no longer be levied without a grant of Parliament.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xxx. (ed. 3), 294. A fine should be levied on the delinquent.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xiv. A subscription was annually levied on the whole school for the purchase of a handsome present.
1874. Green, Short Hist., ii. § 6. 90. No toll might be levied from tenants of the Abbey farms.
† b. To raise (a sum of money) as a profit or rent; to collect (the amount of) a debt; also, to take the revenues of (land). Obs.
1469. Bury Wills (Camden), 48. That the ferme of the seid londys … go to myne doughter Margerye tyll the summe of x marke be levyed for the seid Margerye.
1496. W. Paston, in P. Lett., III. 469. For as moche as … my dettis cannot be redely levied.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xxix. 43. He … wolde leuey the moyte of their landes to his owne vse.
1613. Bury Wills (Camden), 162. My … mynde is yt he enter into the said tenemente and hould the same vntill owte of the revenewes therof he shall have levyed the same.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 419. To hold, till out of the rents and profits thereof the debt be levied.
c. To raise (a sum of money) by legal execution or process. Const. on (the goods of). Also, To levy execution for (a specified sum).
c. 1506. Plumpton Corr. (Camden), 198. The berer shall goe to the Shereff with this exigent, & have from him a warrant to leve the sayd money, or els to take your body.
1669–70. Marvell, Corr., Wks. 1872–5, II. 308. [The fine] shall be levyd on the goods of any one or more persons that were there.
1795. Wythe, Decis. Virginia, 13. By directing the execution to be levied for £1,000.
absol. 1885. Law Times, LXXVIII. 389/2. An execution creditor … levied on their goods for the purpose of realising his debt.
d. To impose (service) upon; to require (a person’s) attendance.
[1611. Bible, 1 Kings ix. 21. Vpon those did Solomon leuie a tribute of bond-seruice vnto this day.]
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. x. 203. They willingly undertook the tributary service which was levied upon them.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust (1875), I. xxi. 179. Ho, there! my friend! I’ll levy thine attendance.
e. U.S. = CHARGE v. 18.
1837. Calhoun, Wks., III. 36. Mr. Madison, under the impression that these papers would be favorably received by the Public … had levied several legacies upon them.
2. Law. To levy a fine: see FINE sb. 6 b. (The expression also occurs with different sense: see 1.)
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 7 § 1. Notes and Fines levied in the King’s Courts … should be openly and solemnly read.
1642. Perkins’ Profit. Bk., iv. § 256. 114. If … either of them levie a fyne unto other of the same land.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), I. 420. When a fine was levied … the estate was in the cognizee or feoffee … by the common law. Ibid., V. 67. If the fine was proved to have been duly levied, then the party who refused to adhere to it was attached.
1844. Williams, Real Prop. (1877), 55. She was also prohibited from levying a fine.
b. To draw up (an objection, protest) in due form.
1660. Stillingfl., Iren., I. i. (1662), 7. This objection will be soon leavied, that it is [etc.].
1868. Seyd, Bullion, 82. He must send the Bill to a Notary … who then levies Protest in due form.
† 3. In various obsolete senses: a. To set up (a fence, weir, etc.); to erect (a house); = AF. lever, Law Latin levare. b. To plan out (ground). c. To weigh (an anchor).
a. 1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. v. Weares and other Engynes for fisshing ther made levyed fixed.
1513. in Fowler, Hist. C. C. C. (O. H. S.), 60. The sayd Master and Prior of St. Frideswith hath begunne to build and levie one house for a College.
1549. Act 3 & 4 Edw. VI., c. 3 § 2. It hapneth sometime, that some Man … hath made or levied a Ditch or Hedge.
1619. Dalton, Country Just., I. (1630), 135. The new levying or inhancing of Weares Mills [etc.].
1741. Viner, Abridgm., XVI. 23. Levying of a Goss to intercept the Course of Fish.
b. 1500–18. Acc. Louth Steeple, in Archæologia, X. 74. Paid to William Thomas and William Palmer, levying the ground for to sett the broach upon.
c. 1648. Gage, West Ind., xxi. (1655), 195. We levying our anchor went on to Panama.
4. To enlist (armed men), enrol, bring into the field (soldiers, an army); to muster the available force of (a district). Also, to levy up.
c. 1500. Melusine, 135. The men of armes, that he leuyed fro the garnysons.
1557. Act 4 & 5 Phil. & Mary, c. 3 § 1. To muster their Maties People … and to levie a nomber of them for the Service of their Maties.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, V. (1629), 447. With sufficient authoritie to leauie forces.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, III. (1634), 63. This was the last Fight of that huge Army leavied against Greece.
1649. H. Guthry, Mem. (1702), 45. The General and his Council appointed the Earl of Montross … to levy Fife, Strathern, Angus, and Merne.
1671. L. Addison, W. Barbary, 40. A small Cavila, not able to levy above 500 in all.
1761–2. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), IV. lxiv. 745. An army of twelve thousand men was suddenly levied.
1797. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1837), I. 17. Tippoo Sultaun suffered the military force which they had levied … to land in his country.
1843. H. Gavin, Feigned & Factitious Dis., 11. Men apprehensive of being levied, or actually levied, or forced into the military and naval services.
fig. 1599. Middleton & Rowley, Old Law, IV. ii. Why should nature have that power in me To leavy up a thousand bleeding sorrowes.
1705. J. Philips, Blenheim, 176. As when two adverse winds,… Engage with horrid shock,… Levying their equal force with utmost rage.
5. To undertake, commence, make (war). Const. against, on, upon.
Johnson says: ‘This sense, though Milton’s, seems improper,’ presumably because there is no similar use of F. lever; but it is a natural development from sense 4.
1471. in Warkworth’s Chron. (Camd.), 57. To levee werre ayenst him.
1543–4. Act 35 Hen. VIII., c. 12. The kynge … is forced … to leuy warre, and to prosecute his saide ennemies.
1659[?]. Priv. Devotions, in Gentl. Calling (1679), 160. So levying War against Thee with thine own Treasure.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 219. The Syrian King … Assassin-like had levied Warr, Warr unproclam’d.
a. 1720. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), II. 111. A meer design of deposition, imprisonment, or levying war, are not within the bare words of this law.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., I. xi. 238. They … then proceeded without further ceremony to levy war upon the king.
1789. Constitution U.S., iii. § 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them.
1814. Cary, Dante, Par., xxvii. 47. [Those] that do levy war On the baptized.’
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr., VII. vi. (1864), IV. 202. Crusades will hereafter be levied against those who dared impiously to [etc.].
† 6. To raise, discontinue (a siege); to break up (a camp). Obs.
1542. Seymour, in St. Papers Hen. VIII., IX. 201. The segge beynge lewed from beforre the towne of Pest the 7th day of October.
1548[?]. Edw. VI., Jrnl., in Lit. Rem. (Roxb.), II. 223. The sieg being levied th’erle of Shrewsbery entred it.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard. (1618), 256. There was made no more doubt to leuie the Campe.
1588. Exhort. to Faithf. Subj., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 102. Porcenna … forth with levied the siege.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXXVI. x. 925. Albeit hee saw that the siege was levied … yet [etc.].
1628. Hobbes, Thucyd. (1629), 74. They sent Ambassadours againe to Athens commanding them to leuy the Siege from before Potidæa.
¶ 7. Wrongly used for LEVEL v.
1618. Breton, Court & Country (Grosart), 6/1. Winking with one eye, as though hee were leuying at a Woodcocke.
a. 1634. Randolph, De Histrice, 2 Poems (1638), 26. Fam’d Stymphall, I have heard, thy birds in flight Shoot showers of arrowes forth all levied right.
Hence Levied ppl. a.
1768. Hume, Ess., xxxiii. 243. How distinguish the new from the old levied soldiers?
1819. R. Chapman, Life Jas. V., 160. They are only new levied men, and undisciplined.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 105. A new levied band of hunters and trappers.
