• (British, America) IPA: /ˈliː.vaɪt/

Levite (plural Levites)

1. A member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Judges 17:7 ↗:

     And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.

2. (obsolete, jocular) A clergyman.
3. (now, historical) A type of loose women's dress.
   • 1779, Horace Walpole, letter, 15 November:

     A habit-maker […] is gone stark in love with Lady Ossory, on fitting her with the new dress, I think they call it a Levite, and says he never saw so glorious a figure […] .

   • 2003, Aileen Ribeiro, in Robyn Asleson, Notorious Muse, Yale UNiversity Press 2003, p. 109:

     Gainsborough shows her wearing a blue and white striped silk wrapping gown, known as a levite: a clever and subtle choice of costume, vaguely ‘oriental’ in mood, deriving its name from the theatre.

• French: lévite
• German: Levit, Levitin
• Italian: levita
• Spanish: levita