leveller
(ˈlɛvələ(r))
Also 8–9 (now U.S.) leveler.
[f. level v. + -er1.]
One who or that which levels.
1. In material senses:
† a. One who takes soundings. † b. One who aims, an aimer. † c. A level (the instrument). d. One who levels ground. Also, ‘an earth-scraper for levelling a site’ (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875). e. Pugilism. A knock-down blow. f. One who uses a level or levelling-instrument. g. ‘A billiard-table foot having a screw adjustment for height, in order to level the table’ (Knight). h. (See quot. 1891.)
| 1598 Florio, Scandagliatore, a sounder, a leueller, or fadomer of the sea. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Coup, The farre-off leueller shall neuer hit the white. 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. I. 41 Every Level..must be taken with the Rule and Leveller, which every body knows is a Triangular Instrument with a Lead..hung to a small Cord, and that fix'd to the obtuse Angle. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 115 Customs that are ordinarily follow'd by Levelers. 1814 Sporting Mag. XLIII. 68 B. put in some good body hits, but C. returned them by a leveller. 1834 Blackw. Mag. XXXV. 548 The leveller and the shoveller..have taken the crown off his [a hill's] head. 1860 J. Mullan Rep. Constr. Road to Ft. Benton (1863) 85 The level was used by myself until..sickness forced me to leave the party, Mr. Johnson taking my place as leveller. 1891 Labour Commission Gloss. s.v. Cokemen, In making coke, the coal is deposited in the oven by a tub which runs to the top eye, and is there tipped up, the coal naturally forming a conical heap at the bottom of the oven. The leveller rakes this coal level. |
2. (Often with capital initial.) One who would level all differences of position or rank among men. The term first arose as the designation of a political party of Charles I's reign, which professed principles of this character; in later use, it has been applied more widely.
| 1644 Needham Case Commw. 77 Our Levellers now exclaim against the Parliament. 1647 Newsletter 1 Nov. (Clarendon MSS. 2638), They have given themselves a new name viz. Levellers, for they intend to sett all things straight, and rayse a parity and community in the kingdom. 1658 J. Harrington Prerog. Pop. Govt. i. viii. 44 The People..are not Levellers, nor know they why, and yet it is, because to be levellers, were to destroy themselves. 1697 Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. i. (1709) 44, I see, you are an everlasting Leveller; you won't allow any Encouragement to extraordinary Industry and Merit. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. 1808 V. 104 The levellers..only change and pervert the natural order of things. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. x. 223 The commonwealth's men and the levellers..grew clamorous for the king's death. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. I. xi. 386 The republicans, the levellers, the fanatics,—all ranged themselves on the side of the new ideas. |
3. pl. The name of a rebel secret society in Ireland in the 18th c. (see quots.); identical with or similar to the ‘Whiteboys’.
| 1762 Gentl. Mag. 183 What you, in Dublin, think of the White Boys, or Levellers, I cannot say. 1763 Brit. Mag. IV. 162 The mischiefs committed by those people called Levellers, in the county of Tipperary; by levelling park walls, breaking down fences, &c. |
4. A thing which reduces all men to an equality.
| 1659 Gentl. Calling (1679) 77 Such a Leveller is Debauchery, that it takes off all distinctions. 1755 Young Centaur ii. Wks. (1757) IV. 146 Is diversion grown a leveller, like death? 1758 Johnson Idler No. 32 ¶5 Sleep is equally a leveller with death. 1829 Lytton Devereux ii. i, Emotion, whether of ridicule, anger or sorrow, is your grandest of levellers. 1874 Helps Soc. Press. xiii. 179 Familiarity is the great leveller, and a most unjust leveller. |