Pronunciation Noun
lever (plural levers)
- (obsolete, except in generalized senses below) A crowbar.
- 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, IV.1:
- My lord, I brained him with a lever my neighbour lent me, and he stood by and cried, ‘Strike home, old boy!’
- 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, IV.1:
- (mechanics) A rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (the fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are applied; — used for transmitting and modifying force and motion.
- Specifically, a bar of metal, wood or other rigid substance, used to exert a pressure, or sustain a weight, at one point of its length, by receiving a force or power at a second, and turning at a third on a fixed point called a fulcrum. It is usually named as the first of the six mechanical powers, and is of three kinds, according as either the fulcrum F, the weight W, or the power P, respectively, is situated between the other two, as in the figures.
- A small such piece to trigger or control a mechanical device (like a button).
- (mechanics) A bar, as a capstan bar, applied to a rotatory piece to turn it.
- (mechanics) An arm on a rock shaft, to give motion to the shaft or to obtain motion from it.
lever (levers, present participle levering; past levered, past participle levered)
- (transitive) To move with a lever#Noun|lever.
- 1938, George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, Chapter 7,
- Someone found a pick and levered a burst plank out of the floor, and in a few minutes we had got a fire alight and our drenched clothes were steaming.
- With great effort and a big crowbar I managed to lever the beam off the floor.
- 1938, George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, Chapter 7,
- (figuratively, transitive) To use, operate or move (something) like a lever#Noun|lever (physically).
- 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, 2001, Part Two, Chapter 1,
- Suddenly he had levered himself up from the sofa, rocking the lame man violently, and was walking towards the receptionist.
- 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, 2001, Part Two, Chapter 1,
- (figuratively, transitive) To use (something) like a lever#Noun|lever (in an abstract sense).
- 2001, Joshua Cooper Ramo, “Bagging the Butcher,” Time, 9 April, 2001,[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,999627,00.html]
- He was a man who levered his way from small-time communist hack to political power by tapping into the most potent vein of historical juice in the Balkans: nationalism.
- 2013, Robert McCrum, “Biographies of the year — review,” The Guardian, 8 December, 2013,
- Credited with pioneering the detective novel, Collins has attracted many biographers over the years, drawn to his extraordinary life and work in the hope of levering open a new understanding of the Victorian psyche.
- 2001, Joshua Cooper Ramo, “Bagging the Butcher,” Time, 9 April, 2001,[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,999627,00.html]
- (chiefly UK, finance) To increase the share of debt in the capitalization of a business.
lever (not comparable)
- (obsolete) Rather.
- 1530, John Heywood, The Four PP
- for I had lever be without ye / Then have suche besines about ye
- 1537, William Tyndale et al, "Jonah", in The Byble
- Now therefore take my life from me, for I had lever die then live.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faery Queene
- For lever had I die than see his deadly face.
- 1530, John Heywood, The Four PP
lever (plural levers)
- (rare) A levee.
- 1742, Miss Robinson, Mrs. Delany's Letters, II.191:
- We do not appear at Phœbus's Levér.
- 2011, Tim Blanning, "The reinvention of the night", Times Literary Supplement, 21 Sep 2011:
- Louis XIV’s day began with a lever at 9 and ended (officially) at around midnight.
- 1742, Miss Robinson, Mrs. Delany's Letters, II.191:
Lever
Proper noun
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