▪ I. † ˈlevigate, pple. Obs.
[ad. late L. levigāt-us, pa. pple. of levigāre, f. levis light.]
Lightened.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. i. iii, His labours beinge leuigate and made more tollerable. |
▪ II. levigate, ppl. a. Bot. and Ent.
(ˈlɛvɪgeɪt)
Also lævigate.
[ad. L. lēvigāt-us, pa. pple. of lēvigāre (see next).]
Smooth as if polished.
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 269 Levigate (Lævigata), without any partial elevations or depressions. 1880 in Gray Struct. Bot. 418/1. |
▪ III. levigate, v.
(ˈlɛvɪgeɪt)
Also erron. læv-.
[f. L. lēvigāt-, ppl. stem of lēvigāre to make smooth, f. lēvis (sometimes erron. lævis) smooth.]
† 1. trans. To make smooth; to polish. Obs.
| 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 70 White starch..levigateth the parts exasperated. 1620 Venner Via Recta vii. 121 By reason of their lenifying and detersiue faculty, [they]..leuigate the roughnesse of the winde-pipe. 1650 Fuller Pisgah 410 A stone turned, rolled, and tossed about, to smooth, and levigate every side thereof. 1676 Boyle New Exper. ii. in Phil. Trans. XI. 805 To enable them, by the help of Gravity,..to levigate..or polish each others surfaces. 1791 Cowper Odyss. xii. 95 No mortal man might climb it or descend..For it is levigated as by art. 1811 Self Instructor 536 Bran..levigates its surface. 1826, 1835 [see levigated ppl. a.]. |
† b. in immaterial sense. Obs.
| 1650 Fuller Pisgah iii. i. 314 The turning of a tender melting B. into a surly rigid R. is not to levigate or mollifie but to make the name harder in pronunciation. 1794 Mrs. Piozzi Synon. I. 374 Such a soul levigated by prosperity soon mounts into airiness of temper. |
2. To reduce to a fine smooth powder; to rub down; to make a smooth paste of (with some liquid).
| 1694 Salmon Bate's Dispens. (1713) 334/1 Levigate it upon a Marble, till it becomes an impalpable Powder. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 181 Some have got the Art of levigating the testaceous Powders. 1782–3 W. F. Martyn Geog. Mag. I. 9 Levigating it with the oil of sweet almonds. 1802 A. Ellicott Jrnl. (1803) 245 Shells, and other calcareous matter, levigated by the friction of the particles. 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 345 It is sufficient to levigate them with water to obtain them very white. 1824 Mech. Mag. No. 30. 32 Machinery for Levigating or Grinding Colours. 1894 Smiles J. Wedgwood ii. 15 This clay, carefully levigated,..yielded a red ware. |
| fig. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. i. 1153 He..makes logic levigate the big crime small. |
Hence ˈlevigating vbl. n. (attrib.) and ppl. a.
| 1710 T. Fuller Pharm. Extemp. 272 A Levigating Lohoch. c 1790 J. Imison Sch. Art ii. 67 Mix it with a levigating knife with spirits of wine. 1812–16 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 787 The glue is then to be put warm on a levigating stone, and kneaded with quicklime. |