''levee'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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Primary

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''levee'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250804010016-00-⌔

levee - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

levee (plural levees)

• An elevated ridge of deposited sediment on the banks of a river, formed by the river’s overflow at times of high discharge.
• An embankment to prevent inundation; as, the levees along the Mississippi.
• (US) The steep bank of a river.
  • ✤ The purchaser of a riparious estate under the words “front to the levee,” does not acquire the alluvion or batture, when there is land susceptible of separate ownership beyond the levee.¹
• (US) The border of an irrigated field.
• (US) A pier or other landing place on a river.

Verb

levee (third-person singular simple present levees, present participle leveeing, simple past and past participle leveed)

• (US, transitive) To keep within a channel by means of levees.
  • ✤ to levee a river

Noun

levee (plural levees)

• (obsolete) The act of rising; getting up, especially in the morning after rest.
  • ✤ *And look before you were up in the morning, though you were a punctual courtier at the sun’s levee *²
  • ✤ The sturdy hind now attends the levee of his fellow-labourer the ox […]³
• A reception of visitors held after getting up.
• A formal reception, especially one given by royalty or other leaders.
  • ✤ I must take my leave, for the Cardinal holds a levee to-day, and let those fail in attendance who want nothing.⁴
  • ✤ At the King’s levee on the morning of the 13th, Philippe was first ignored; then asked by His Majesty (rudely) what he wanted; then told, ‘Get back where you came from.’⁵

Verb

levee (third-person singular simple present levees, present participle leveeing, simple past and past participle leveed)

• (transitive) To attend the levee or levees of.
  • ✤ He levees all the great.⁶

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈlɛvi/, /ˈlɛveɪ/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɛvi, -ɛveɪ
• Homophone: levy (some pronunciations only)
• (US) enPR: lev’i, IPA: /ˈlɛvi/, /ləˈvi/, /ləˈveɪ/
  • Audio (General American): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɛvi
• Homophones: levy, Levy

Etymology 1

From French levée, from lever (“to raise, rise”).

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Etymology 2

From French levé variant of the noun lever (“the act of getting up in the morning”).

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 1826, William Christy, A Digest of Martin’s Reports: ↩

2. c. 1763, Thomas Gray, letter to Mr. Nichols ↩

3. 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 414: ↩

4. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 179: ↩

5. 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety ‎${}^{[1]}$, published 1993, →ISBN, page 195: ↩

6. 1725–1728, [Edward Young], “”, in Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. In Seven Characteristical Satires, 4th edition, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson […], published 1741, →OCLC: ↩

Link to original

Secondary

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