▪ I. levelling, vbl. n.
(ˈlɛvəlɪŋ)
Also 8–9 (now U.S.) leveling.
[f. level v. + -ing1.]
1. Aiming, aim.
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Visée, leuelling. 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 429 A smooth stone, by which I may, if the Lord shall please so to blesse my leuelling, smite this Goliah in the forehead. 1627 tr. Bacon's Life & Death (1651) 50 Our Aiming and Levelling at the End. 1796–7 Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 263 In the firings, the loading is quick, the levelling is just. |
2. a. The action of bringing to a uniform horizontal surface; the action of placing in an accurately horizontal position by means of a level.
| 1598 [see 4 below]. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 105 The Words Dressing, Leveling..signify the Action of harrowing or raking the Ground, to lay it every where smooth and eaven. 1786 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 260 The levelling of the streets. 1861 Musgrave By-roads 289 The levelling of two or three hills, and the filling in of a few ravines. |
b. fig. (See
level v. 3.) Also with
up,
down,
off,
out.
| 1618 J. Smith Lives Berkeleys (1883) II. 417, I have, for 550 years, traced the waies wherein they severally walked, for the better levelling of the life of the present lord George. 1658 J. Harrington Prerog. Pop. Govt. i. xi. 84 By Levelling, they who use the word, seem to understand, when a People rising invades the Lands and Estates of the richer sort, and divides them equally among themselves. 1705 Stanhope Paraphr. III. 476 The Jews..disdained such a Levelling with People held by them in the utmost Contempt. 1831 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. To Shade of Elliston, O ignoble levelling of Death! 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. v. iv, Levelling is comfortable but only down to oneself. 1869 Dowden Stud. Lit. (1890) 353 Thus, by a process of levelling-up, Lamennais made the supernatural, in the ordinary sense of the word, disappear. 1871 H. Sweet King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care p. xxxvii, The change is not phonetic,..but is due to inflectional levelling, the nom. terminations being made uniform, regardless of gender. 1888 Sweet Hist. Eng. Sounds Pref. p. vi, To justify Rapp's and Ellis's levelling of Chaucer's long es under one sound. 1888 J. Wright Old High-German Primer 16 The regular operation of this law was often disturbed by new formations made by levelling. 1903 G. B. Shaw Revolutionist's Handbk. vii, in Man & Superman 201 To them the limit of progress is, at worst, the completion of all the suggested reforms and the levelling up of all men to the point attained already by the most highly nourished and cultivated in mind and body. 1932 F. R. Leavis in Scrutiny I. 137 Mass-production, standardization, levelling-down—these three terms convey succinctly, what has happened. 1953 Manch. Guardian Weekly 13 Aug. 7/2 Housewives..cheered the heavy drop in the price of beef and thankfully attributed it to..the ‘levelling-off’ of inflation. 1955 Times 17 Aug. 5/5 Efforts by the employers to make them [sc. piece rates] realistic have foundered on the insistence of the men that they shall be changed only by levelling up. 1962 Simpson & Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors vi. 112 The beginning of this levelling-off process can be seen in the figure. 1964 F. Bowers Bibliogr. & Textual Crit. i. ii. 13 This evidence also suggests that authors' papers and not a levelling-out scribal transcript formed the printer's copy. 1971 Cabinet Maker & Retail Furnisher 24 Sept. 518/1 Important social changes and a levelling-off of income groups are playing a strong part in the expanding consumer market. 1972 Guardian 30 Mar. 14/3 Labour came to office with a strategy of levelling-up, of faster growth to finance greater equality. |
3. Surveying. (See
quot. 1887.)
| 1812–16 Playfair Nat. Phil. (1819) I. 169 Levelling is the art of drawing a line at the surface of the earth, to cut the directions of gravity every where at right angles. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 293 The levellings recently carried across that isthmus..to ascertain the relative height of the Pacific Ocean at Panama. 1831 Lardner Hydrost. iv. 72 Instruments for levelling or determining the direction or position of horizontal lines. 1887 Gen. Walker in Encycl. Brit. XXII. 707 Levelling is the art of determining the relative heights of points on the surface of the ground as referred to a hypothetical surface which cuts the direction of gravity everywhere at right angles... The trigonometrical determination of the relative heights of points at known distances apart by the measurements of their mutual angles..is a method of levelling. But the method to which the term ‘levelling’ is always applied is that of the direct determination of the differences of height from the readings of the lines at which graduated staves, held vertically over the points, are cut by the horizontal plane which passes through the eye of the observer. |
4. attrib.:
levelling-instrument, an instrument used in surveying and consisting essentially of a telescope fitted with a spirit-level;
levelling pole, rod, staff, an instrument, consisting essentially of a graduated pole with a vane sliding upon it, used in levelling;
† levelling-rule = level n.1;
levelling-screw, a screw used to adjust parts of a contrivance to an exact level;
levelling-stand (
Photography), an instrument used to support a glass plate in a horizontal position.
| 1690 Leybourn Curs. Math. 456 b, The *Levelling Instrument to be used in this Work. 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 1087 Theodolites,..sextants, levelling instruments. |
| 1598 Florio, Scandaglio, a plummet, or line to sounde with, a *leuelling rule. |
| 1849 R. V. Dixon Heat i. 51 A strong T-shaped bar of iron, furnished with two levels, and placed on a board provided with *levelling screws. 1866 R. M. Ferguson Electr. (1870) 19 Upon a tripod provided with levelling screws stands the pillar. |
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., *Levelling Staves, are instruments used in levelling; serving to carry marks to be observed, and at the same time to measure the heights of those marks from the ground. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Leveling-stand. 1890 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. III. 220 The solution may be flowed on and off the plate or the plate placed on a levelling stand. |
▪ II. ˈlevelling, ppl. a. Also
leveling.
[f. level v. + -ing2.] That levels;
esp. bringing all to the same social, moral, or intellectual level; also, of or pertaining to levellers and their principles.
| a 1635 Sibbes Confer. Christ & Mary (1656) 63 If God be a Father, and we be brethren, it is a levelling word, it bringeth mountains down, and filleth up vallies. 1648 Boyle Seraph. Love xi. (1700) 56 So familiar and levelling an affection as Love. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. x. §136 The barbarity of the Agitators and the levelling party. 1763 Johnson in Boswell 21 July, I..showed her the absurdity of the levelling doctrine. 1796 Burke Let. Noble Lord Wks. VIII. 39 A levelling tyrant, who oppressed all descriptions of his people. 1841–4 Emerson Ess., Compensation Wks. (Bohn) I. 42 There is always some levelling circumstance that puts down the overbearing, the strong, the rich, the fortunate. 1847 Disraeli Tancred i. vi, If anything can save the aristocracy in this levelling age, it is an appreciation of men of genius. |