• IPA: /lɪˈvænt/

levant (plural levants)

1. A disappearing or absconding after losing a bet.

levant (levants, present participle levanting; past and past participle levanted)

1. To abscond or run away, especially to avoid paying money or debts.
   • 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Night 16:

     In a mighty little time their husbands played them false and, taking whatever they could lay hands upon, levanted and left them in the lurch.

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:

     He died of a Tuesday. Got the run. Levanted with the cash of a few ads.

• IPA: /ˈlɛvənt/

levant (not comparable)

1. (heraldry) Rising, of an animal.
2. (legal) Rising or having risen from rest; said of cattle.
3. (poetic) Eastern.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 9”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     Forth rush the levant and the ponent winds.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈlɛv.ənt/
• (America) IPA: /ləˈvɑnt/, /lɛvɑnt/, /ləˈvænt/

1. The countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea, namely Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus (and sometimes, especially in a historical context, also including Turkey and Egypt, then part of the Ottoman Empire).

   Antonyms: Maghreb

2. An easterly wind, generally in the western Mediterranean Sea

   Synonyms: levanter

• French: Levant
• German: Levante
• Italian: Levante
• Portuguese: Levante
• Russian: Лева́нт
• Spanish: Levante