Link Centre Dictionary

levy

UK/ˈlɛ.vi/ US/ˈliː.vi/ uncommon obsolete slang us
verb (2) noun (2)

verb

1.

impose and collect

  • “levy a fine”
Synonyms
2.

cause to assemble or enlist in the military

  • “raise an army”
  • “recruit new soldiers”
Synonyms

noun

1.
2.

the act of drafting into military service

Synonyms

Origin

From the biblical name Levi. Unlike the biblical spelling, which descended through continuous liturgical traditions that preserved final secondary stress (causing it to shift to IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈliːvaɪ/), the surname was re-introduced into English after the 1650s via French Lévy and German Levy. The pronunciation IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈlɛvi/ arose from assimilation to the common noun levy, while IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈliːvi/ preserves the historical long vowel of the first syllable without final stress.

Phrases

  • latte levy
  • levy en masse
  • workplace parking levy

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.