levy
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Anglo-Norman leve, from Old French levee, from lever (“to raise”).
Verb
levy (third-person singular simple present levies, present participle levying, simple past and past participle levied)
- (transitive) To impose (a tax or fine) to collect monies due, or to confiscate property.
- to levy a tax
- To raise or collect by assessment; to exact by authority.
- 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
- If they do this […] my ransom, then, / Will soon be levied.
- To draft someone into military service.
- To raise; to collect; said of troops, to form into an army by enrollment, conscription. etc.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
- Augustine […] inflamed Ethelbert, king of Kent, to levy his power, and to war against them.
- To wage war.
- To raise, as a siege.
- 1659, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “(please specify the book number)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] W. Hunt, for George Sawbridge, […], →OCLC:
- Albeit hee saw that the siege was levied
- (law) To erect, build, or set up; to make or construct; to raise or cast up.
- 1619, Michael Dalton, The Countrey Justice:
- The new levying or inhancing of Weares Mills
Translations
to impose a tax
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to impose a fine
to confiscate property
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to raise or collect by assessment; to exact by authority
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to draft into military service
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Noun
levy (plural levies)
- The act of levying.
- A conscription action.
- Hyponym: levy en masse
- 1835-1847, Connop Thirlwall, The History of Greece
- A levy of all the men left under sixty.
- A conscription action.
- The things or people so levied.
- A tax.
- A tax paid in money.
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
- The Irish levies.
- 2023 November 17, Oliver Haynes, “Five years on, the world is failing to learn the gilets jaunes’ lesson about class and climate”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- The first is that French people are more concerned about the poor health of their democracy – since the carbon levy they have campaigned for democratic reform (though this has proven harder to deliver than the tax U-turn).
- A tax in kind.
- A tax paid in money.
- Requisitioned supplies.
- A body of conscripts.
- 1978, James Burke, Connections, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 48:
- To make up for their losses at the battle they [the professional army of Harold II, Anglo-Saxon King of England] had gathered levies of men from the counties they passed through on their way south. […] Ranged alongside these professionals were the levies: farmers and peasants, for the most part, who had been straggling in from all over the southern counties during the previous few days [before the Battle of Hastings in 1066].
- A tax.
Derived terms
Translations
act of levying
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Etymology 2
Contraction of elevenpence.
Noun
levy (plural levies)
- (US, obsolete, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia) The Spanish real of one eighth of a dollar, valued at elevenpence when the dollar was rated at seven shillings and sixpence.
See also
Anagrams
Finnish
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