• (British, America) IPA: /ˈlɛ.vi/

From , from , from lever ("to raise").

levy (levies, present participle levying; simple past and past participle levied)

1. (transitive) To impose (a tax or fine) to collect monies due, or to confiscate property.

   to levy a tax

2. 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.

3. To draft someone into military service.
4. 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 ↗:

     Augustine […] inflamed Ethelbert, king of Kent, to levy his power, and to war against them.

5. To wage war.
6. 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

7. (legal) To erect, build, or set up; to make or construct; to raise or cast up.

• French: lever
• German: erheben
• Italian: imporre
• Russian: взима́ть

• German: erheben
• Spanish: multar

• German: einziehen, in Beschlag nehmen

• German: einziehen
• Portuguese: convocar
• Spanish: reclutar

levy (plural levies)

1. The act of levying.
   • 1835-1847, Connop Thirlwall, The History of Greece

     A levy of all the men left under sixty.

2. The tax, property or people so levied.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 12, 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.

• French: impôt, prélèvement, taxe
• German: Erhebung, Abgabenerhebung, Umlagenerhebung
• Russian: сбор

• German: Umlage, Abgabe

Contraction of elevenpence.

levy (plural levies)

1. (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.

• As a Jewish surname, a variant of the biblical name Levi. Compare Lowy.
• As a Czech - surname, from the adjective levý.
• Also a shortening of Irish Mac Duinnshléibhe, from mac + donn + sliabh.

• (British, America) IPA: /ˈlɛ.vi/, /ˈliː.vi/

1. Surname.
2. Surname.
3. A male given name