释义 |
levee I. le·vee \ˈlevē, -vi; ləˈvē, -ˈvā\ noun (-s) Etymology: French lever, from Middle French, action of rising from bed, from lever to rise from bed, raise, from Latin levare to raise 1. a. : a reception held by a person of distinction on rising from bed < the Sun King had one nobleman to hand him his stockings, another his shirt, in his morning levee — Saul Bellow > b. Britain : an afternoon assembly at which the king or his representative receives only men c. : a fashionable party or reception usually in honor of a particular person < the years of levees and parades and other suave peacetime occasions — Gladys B. Stern > < young ladies who were invited to levees, as the college receptions were then called — Mary A. Allen > < they were dressed as if for a levee — A.J.Liebling > 2. archaic : the act or action of arising from or as if from bed < the sun's levee — Thomas Gray > 3. obsolete : the guests gathered at a levee II. levee transitive verb (leveed ; leveed ; leveeing ; levees) obsolete : to court (the great or powerful) by attending or seeking entry to levees III. lev·ee \ˈlevē, -vi\ noun (-s) Etymology: French levée, from Middle French levee levee, action of raising, from Old French, action of raising, from feminine of levé, past participle of lever to raise 1. a. : an embankment designed to prevent flooding < the Mississippi river levees have often had to be sandbagged > b. : a river landing place : pier, quay 2. : a small continuous dike or ridge of earth for confining the irrigation checks of land to be flooded 3. : the very low ridge sometimes built up by streams on their floodplains on either side of their channels 4. : a red-light district especially in Chicago Synonyms: see wharf IV. levee transitive verb (leveed ; leveed ; leveeing ; levees) : to provide with a levee < leveed the stream channel > < leveed banks > |