n. [ F. alevin, OF. alever to rear, fr. L. ad + levare to raise. ] Young fish; fry. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Alleviated; p. pr. & vb. n. Alleviating. ] [ LL. alleviare, fr. L. ad + levis light. See Alegge, Levity. ] 1. To lighten or lessen the force or weight of. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Should no others join capable to alleviate the expense. Evelyn. [ 1913 Webster ]

Those large bladders . . . conduce much to the alleviating of the body [ of flying birds ]. Ray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To lighten or lessen (physical or mental troubles); to mitigate, or make easier to be endured; as, to alleviate sorrow, pain, care, etc. ; -- opposed to aggravate. [ 1913 Webster ]

The calamity of the want of the sense of hearing is much alleviated by giving the use of letters. Bp. Horsley. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To extenuate; to palliate. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

He alleviates his fault by an excuse. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To lessen; diminish; soften; mitigate; assuage; abate; relieve; nullify; allay. -- To Alleviate, Mitigate, Assuage, Allay. These words have in common the idea of relief from some painful state; and being all figurative, they differ in their application, according to the image under which this idea is presented. Alleviate supposes a load which is lightened or taken off; as, to alleviate one's cares. Mitigate supposes something fierce which is made mild; as, to mitigate one's anguish. Assuage supposes something violent which is quieted; as, to assuage one's sorrow. Allay supposes something previously excited, but now brought down; as, to allay one's suffering or one's thirst. To alleviate the distresses of life; to mitigate the fierceness of passion or the violence of grief; to assuage angry feeling; to allay wounded sensibility. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. 1 made less severe or intense. unmitigated
Syn. -- eased, relieved, mitigated. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ LL. alleviatio. ] 1. The act of alleviating; a lightening of weight or severity; mitigation; relief. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which mitigates, or makes more tolerable. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have not wanted such alleviations of life as friendship could supply. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Tending to alleviate. -- n. That which alleviates. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, alleviates. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Alleviative. Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Cleave to adhere, Clavel. ] A piece of metal bent in the form of an oxbow, with the two ends perforated to receive a pin, used on the end of the tongue of a plow, wagen, etc., to attach it to a draft chain, whiffletree, etc.; -- called also clavel, clevy. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Not leviable; incapable of being imposed, or collected. [ R. ] Sir M. Hale. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. (Law) Not capable of being replevied. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ From Levy to assess. ] Fit to be levied; capable of being assessed and collected; as, sums leviable by course of law. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Heb. livyāthān. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. An aquatic animal, described in the book of Job, ch. xli., and mentioned in other passages of Scripture. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It is not certainly known what animal is intended, whether the crocodile, the whale, or some sort of serpent. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The whale, or a great whale. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who levies. Cartwright. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ See Levigate, v. t. ] Capable of being levigated. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. levigatus, p. p. of levigare to lighten, fr. l&ebreve_;vis light. ] Made less harsh or burdensome; alleviated. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Elyot. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Levigated p. pr. & vb. n. Levigating. ] [ L. levigatus, p. p. of levigare to make smooth, fr. lēvis smooth; akin to Gr. lei^os. ] To make smooth in various senses: (a) To free from grit; to reduce to an impalpable powder or paste. (b) To mix thoroughly, as liquids or semiliquids. (c) To polish. (d) To make smooth in action. “ When use hath levigated the organs.” Barrow. (e) Technically, to make smooth by rubbing in a moist condition between hard surfaces, as in grinding pigments. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. levigatus, p. p. ] Made smooth, as if polished. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. levigatio a smoothing: cf. F. lévigation. ] The act or operation of levigating. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Etymol. uncertain. Cf. Leven. ] Lightning. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Levin brand, a thunderbolt. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A swift hound. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. ] A husband's brother; -- used in reference to levirate marriages. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ L. levir a husband's brother, brother-in-law; akin to Gr. dah`r: cf. F. lévirat leviration. ] Of, pertaining to, or in accordance with, a law of the ancient Israelites and other tribes and races, according to which a woman, whose husband died without issue, was married to the husband's brother. [ 1913 Webster ]

The firstborn son of a leviratical marriage was reckoned and registered as the son of the deceased brother. Alford. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Levirate marriage or marriages. Kitto. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., fr. L. levis light + rostrum beak. ] (Zool.) A group of birds, including the hornbills, kingfishers, and related forms. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ L. levitas, -atis, lightness. See Levity. ] To rise, or tend to rise, as if lighter than the surrounding medium; to become buoyant; -- opposed to gravitate. Sir. J. Herschel. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. (Spiritualism) To make buoyant; to cause to float in the air; as, to levitate a table. [ Cant ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. levis light in weight. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Lightness; buoyancy; act of making light. Paley. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act or process of making buoyant. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. Levites, Gr. Leyi:`ths, fr. Heb. Levi, one of the sons of Jacob. ] 1. (Bib. Hist.) One of the tribe or family of Levi; a descendant of Levi; esp., one subordinate to the priests (who were of the same tribe) and employed in various duties connected with the tabernacle first, and afterward the temple, such as the care of the building, bringing of wood and other necessaries for the sacrifices, the music of the services, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A priest; -- so called in contempt or ridicule. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. Leviticus, Gr. Leyitiko`s. ] 1. Of or pertaining to a Levite or the Levites. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Priestly. “ Levitical questions.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Of or pertaining to, or designating, the law contained in the book of Leviticus. Ayliffe. [ 1913 Webster ]

Levitical degrees, degrees of relationship named in Leviticus, within which marriage is forbidden. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. After the manner of the Levites; in accordance with the levitical law. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Levitical. ] The third canonical book of the Old Testament, containing the laws and regulations relating to the priests and Levites among the Hebrews, or the body of the ceremonial law. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. levitas, fr. levis light in weight; akin to levare to raise. See Lever, n. ] 1. The quality of weighing less than something else of equal bulk; relative lightness, especially as shown by rising through, or floating upon, a contiguous substance; buoyancy; -- opposed to gravity. [ 1913 Webster ]

He gave the form of levity to that which ascended; to that which descended, the form of gravity. Sir. W. Raleigh. [ 1913 Webster ]

This bubble by reason of its comparative levity to the fluidity that incloses it, would ascend to the top. Bentley. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Lack of gravity and earnestness in deportment or character; trifling gayety; frivolity; sportiveness; vanity. “ A spirit of levity and libertinism.” Atterbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

He never employed his omnipotence out of levity. Calamy. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Lack of steadiness or constancy; disposition to change; fickleness; volatility. [ 1913 Webster ]

The levity that is fatigued and disgusted with everything of which it is in possession. Burke.

Syn. -- Inconstancy; thoughtlessness; unsteadiness; inconsideration; volatility; flightiness. -- Levity, Volatility, Flightiness. All these words relate to outward conduct. Levity springs from a lightness of mind which produces a disregard of the proprieties of time and place.Volatility is a degree of levity which causes the thoughts to fly from one object to another, without resting on any for a moment. Flightiness is volatility carried to an extreme which often betrays its subject into gross impropriety or weakness. Levity of deportment, of conduct, of remark; volatility of temper, of spirits; flightiness of mind or disposition. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The process of supporting an object, such as a vehicle, with a magnetic field so that it does not contact the object supporting it; it is a method used for eliminating friction in moving vehicles, and is used, e.g. in high-speed rail technology where a train is suspended on a magnetic cushion above a magnetized track and so travels free of friction. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ From Dmitri Mendeleyev, discoverer of the periodic law. ] (Chem.) an unstable radioactive element discovered in 1955 and produced artificially only in very small quantities; symbol Md (also Mv). It is a transuranic element with atomic number 101. Isotopes 255, 256, 257, and 258 have been prepared. Md²⁵⁸, the longest-lived, has a half-life of two months. HCP61 [ PJC ]

n. 1. The language of Sassanian Persia. See Pehlevi. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The script in which the Pahlavi language was written. It was taken from the Aramaic alphabet. [ PJC ]

3. A gold coin formerly used in Iran, equal in value to 20 rials. [ PJC ]

n. [ Parsee Pahlavi. ] An ancient Persian dialect in which words were partly represented by their Semitic equivalents. It was in use from the 3d century (and perhaps earlier) to the middle of the 7th century, and later in religious writings. [ Written also Pahlavi. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. plevine. See Replevin. ] A warrant or assurance. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F., properly, a drawbridge. ] (Man.) The action of a horse in rearing repeatedly and dangerously. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ See Replevy. ] (Law) Capable of being replevied. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. replevina. See Replevy, and cf. Plevin. ] 1. (Law) A personal action which lies to recover possession of goods and chattle wrongfully taken or detained. Originally, it was a remedy peculiar to cases for wrongful distress, but it may generally now be brought in all cases of wrongful taking or detention. Bouvier. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The writ by which goods and chattels are replevied. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. (Law) To replevy. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ OF. replevisable. ] Repleviable. Sir M. Hale. [ 1913 Webster ]