levant

Transferral use of Levant, from French levant. Compare French faire voile en Levant (“to sail eastward”), literally: set the sail with the Levant, an easterly wind that blows in the Mediterranean Sea.

• IPA^(key): /lɪˈvænt/

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levant (plural levants)

1. A disappearing or absconding after losing a bet.

levant (third-person singular simple present levants, present participle levanting, simple past and past participle levanted)

1. To abscond or run away, especially to avoid paying money or debts.
   • 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Night 16:

     In a mighty little time their husbands played them false and, taking whatever they could lay hands upon, levanted and left them in the lurch.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], OCLC 560090630:

     He died of a Tuesday. Got the run. Levanted with the cash of a few ads.

From French levant.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛvənt/

levant (not comparable)

1. (heraldry) Rising, of an animal.
2. (law) Rising or having risen from rest; said of cattle.
3. (poetic) Eastern.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Forth rush the levant and the ponent winds.

• -valent, valent, vental

Participle adjective of lever (“to raise”). Corresponds to Latin levāns, levāntem (“raising”), in reference to the rising of the sun; compare Italian levante.

• IPA^(key): /lə.vɑ̃/

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levant (feminine levante, masculine plural levants, feminine plural levantes)

1. (of the moon, the sun, etc.) rising

   Antonym: couchant

levant m (uncountable)

1. the east, the orient

   Synonym: orient

   Antonyms: ponant, occident

levant

1. present participle of lever

• Levant

• “levant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• lavent, valent

levant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of levō