Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To leave hurriedly or in secret to avoid unpaid debts.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bet made by one who expects to evade paying if he loses.
  • noun [capitalized] The region east of Italy lying on and near the Mediterranean, sometimes reckoned as extending east to the Euphrates and as taking in the Nile valley, thus including Greece and Egypt; more specifically, the coast-region and islands of Asia Minor and Syria: a name originally given by the Italians.
  • noun An easterly wind blowing up the Mediterranean; a levanter.
  • noun Same as levant morocco.
  • Of or pertaining to or obtained from the Levant.
  • To run away; decamp.
  • Used only in the imperative, in the exclamatory phrase levant me, a mild imprecation much like blow me!
  • Rising. Minsheu, 1617;
  • Eastern; coming from the direction in which the sun rises.
  • [capitalized] In geology, appellative of the fourth of Professor H. Rogers's fifteen divisions of the Paleozoic strata in the Appalachian chain, the names of which suggest metaphorically the different natural periods of the day.
  • noun Same as lavant.
  • noun In leather manufacturing, artificial blood used instead of real blood for obtaining a perfect black.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Law) Rising or having risen from rest; -- said of cattle. See Couchant and levant, under couchant.
  • noun The countries washed by the eastern part of the Mediterranean and its contiguous waters.
  • noun A levanter (the wind so called).
  • adjective obsolete Eastern.
  • intransitive verb Colloq. Eng. To run away from one's debts; to decamp.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Disappearing or absconding after losing a bet.
  • verb To abscond or run away, especially to avoid paying money or debts.
  • adjective heraldry Rising, of an animal.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb run off without paying a debt
  • noun a heavy morocco often used in bookbinding
  • noun the former name for the geographical area of the eastern Mediterranean that is now occupied by Lebanon, Syria, and Israel

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably after the Levant, used as an example of a faraway place to which a person might abscond (perhaps with a pun on leave).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French levant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Transferral use of Levant, from French levant. Compare French faire voile en Levant ("be stolen away").

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Examples

  • Le mardi matin en me levant je me prepare et tout et telephone au magasin que je devais une enieme fois relancer si je n'avais pas eu de nouvelles.

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2009

  • Type "ezra levant human rights commission" into Google Blog Search and you'll see what I mean.

    Archive 2008-01-01 2008

  • Not only does it cover the levant, Asia minor and southern Europe but it is a fascinating cultural trek that covers many cultures and languages

    Wandering Neanderthals 2008

  • Ca m'a trop etonné, tellement d'ailleurs que ce matin en me levant je me suis empressé de chercher des fotos de lui sur le net pour regarder de plus pres ...

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2007

  • Velut incantamentum quoddam ex flatuoso spiritu, dolorem ortum levant.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Mais ca c'est le coup de fil que j'ai du passer parce que sinon avec deux ritaline dans le sang je tiens au moins en me levant a 14h00 juuuusqu'a 16h00.

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2006

  • Ben oui pour ca j'dis que finalement j'me serais peut-etre moins fatigué en me levant carrement ...

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2006

  • J'avais oublié qu'en se levant a 9h05 on etait deja en retard pour son boulot qui commence a 13H00!

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2006

  • C'est que me levant tous les jours a 8h00 je commence a etre fatigué a 10H00 et enfin apres avoir usé de toutes les techniques possibles pour me tenir eveillé je tombe irremediablement dans les bras de Morphee a 14h00 jusqu'a 19h00.

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2006

  • La tradition veut qu'on mette un de ces chats levant la patte dans les magasins pour attirer la fortune.

    pinku-tk Diary Entry pinku-tk 2005

Comments

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  • In rare/antique books, a highly polished, loosely grained type of morocco.

    February 22, 2007

  • "Used only in the imperative, in the exclamatory phrase levant me, a mild imprecation much like blow me!" --from the definitions.

    December 29, 2012