lever

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.vɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.və/,[1]

  Audio (RP)

  (file)

  Hyphenation: lever[1]

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.vɚ/,[1][2][3] /ˈliː.vɚ/[1][2][3]

  Audio (GA)

  (file)

  Hyphenation: le‧ver,[1][2] Hyphenation: lev‧er[3]

• Rhymes: -ɛvə(ɹ), -iːvə(ɹ)
• Homophones: leaver, Lever (for the pronunciation /ˈliːvə(ɹ)/)

Borrowed from Old French leveor, leveur (“a lifter, lever (also Old French and French levier)”), from Latin levator (“a lifter”), from levare, past part. levatus (“to raise”); see levant. Compare alleviate, elevate, leaven.

lever (plural levers)

1. (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!’

2. (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.
   1. 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.
3. A small such piece to trigger or control a mechanical device (like a button).
4. (mechanics) A bar, as a capstan bar, applied to a rotatory piece to turn it.
   • 2012 March 1, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 112-3:

     A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place.

5. (mechanics) An arm on a rock shaft, to give motion to the shaft or to obtain motion from it.

lever (third-person singular simple present levers, present participle levering, simple past and past participle levered)

1. (transitive) To move with a 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.

2. (figuratively, transitive) To use, operate or move (something) like a 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.

3. (figuratively, transitive) To use (something) like a lever (in an abstract sense).
   • 2001, Joshua Cooper Ramo, “Bagging the Butcher,” Time, 9 April, 2001,

     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.

4. (chiefly Britain, finance) To increase the share of debt in the capitalization of a business.
   • 1989 June 26, “Corporate America wants its privacy”, in Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

     "The equity holders want you to 'lever up,' use as much debt as you can," said David Stanley, chairman of Kansas City-based Payless Cashways,

From the Middle English comparative of leve (“dear”) of Germanic origin (compare German lieb) or lief.

lever (not comparable)

1. (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.

Borrowed from French lever.

lever (plural levers)

1. (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.

• lever in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• lever in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Revel, elver, revel

From Old Danish liuær, from Old Norse lifr, from Proto-Germanic *librō, from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to smudge, stick”), from *ley- (“to be slimy, be sticky, glide”).

• IPA^(key): /leːvər/, [ˈleʊ̯ˀɐ], [ˈlewˀʌ]

lever c (singular definite leveren, plural indefinite levere)

1. liver

See leve (“to live”).

• IPA^(key): /leːvər/, [ˈleːʊ̯ɐ]

lever

1. present of leve

See levere (“to deliver”).

• IPA^(key): /leveːr/, [leˈʋeɐ̯ˀ]

lever or levér

1. imperative of levere

• IPA^(key): /ˈleːvər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: le‧ver

From Middle Dutch lēvere, from Old Dutch *levara, from Proto-Germanic *librō.

lever f (plural levers, diminutive levertje n)

1. liver
2. edible animal liver as a dish or culinary ingredient

• ganzenlever
• kalfslever
• kippenlever
• rundslever
• varkenslever
• leverbloem
• leverbotziekte
• leverextract
• leverkaas
• leverkleurig
• leverpastei
• levertraan
• levertumor
• leverworst
• leverziekte

See the etymology of the main entry.

lever

1. first-person singular present indicative of leveren
2. imperative of leveren

From Middle French lever, from Old French lever, from Latin levāre, present active infinitive of lēvō (“to elevate”), from levis (“light, not heavy”)

• IPA^(key): /lə.ve/

• audio

  (file)

lever

1. (transitive) to raise, to lift
2. (reflexive) to rise, to stand up
3. (reflexive) to get up (out of bed)

   Je me lève, je me lave.

   I get up, I wash.

4. (reflexive, of fog, rain and etc) to clear, to lift

This verb is conjugated mostly like the regular -er verbs (parler and chanter and so on), but the -e- /ə/ of the second-to-last syllable becomes -è- /ɛ/ when the next vowel is a silent or schwa -e-. For example, in the third-person singular present indicative, we have il lève rather than *il leve. Other verbs conjugated this way include acheter and mener. Related but distinct conjugations include those of appeler and préférer.

• (to raise): baisser
• (to rise): s'abaisser
• (to get up): se coucher, s'allonger

• levage m
• levant, Levant, Levantin m
• levé
• lève
• lève-Dieu
• levée
• se lever
• lever du soleil
• lève-tard
• leveur m
• levure

lever m (plural levers)

1. the act of getting up in the morning

• “lever” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• lèvre

le- +‎ ver

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɛvɛr]
• Hyphenation: le‧ver

lever

1. (transitive) to knock down

• leverés

lēver

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of levo

Comparative of leve (“dear”) of Germanic origin (compare German lieb) or lief.

lever

1. Rather.

   For him was lever have at his bed's head
   Twenty bookes, clad in black or red,
   . . . Than robes rich, or fithel, or gay sawtrie. —The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

   But lever than this worldés good
   She would have wist how that it stood —Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins, John Gower.

From Old French lever.

lever

1. to lift

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

• French: lever

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (lever, supplement)

From Old Norse lifr, from Proto-Germanic *librō, from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to smudge, stick”), from *ley- (“to be slimy, be sticky, glide”).

lever m or f (definite singular leveren or levra, indefinite plural levere or levre or levrer, definite plural leverne or levrene)

1. (anatomy) a liver
2. liver (eaten as food)

lever

1. present of leve
2. imperative of levere

• “lever” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse lifr, from Proto-Germanic *librō, from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to smudge, stick”), from *ley- (“to be slimy, be sticky, glide”). Akin to English liver.

• IPA^(key): /ˈleːʋɛr/

lever f (definite singular levra, indefinite plural levrar or levrer, definite plural levrane or levrene)

1. (anatomy) a liver
2. liver (eaten as food)

• IPA^(key): /²leːʋɛr/

lever

1. present tense of leva

• “lever” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Latin lēvāre, present active infinitive of lēvō.

lever

1. to lift (up)
2. (reflexive, se level) to get up (get out of bed)

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-v, *-vs, *-vt are modified to f, s, t. This verb has a stressed present stem liev distinct from the unstressed stem lev. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• Middle French: lever
  • French: lever

From Old Norse hleifr, from Proto-Germanic *hlaibaz.

lēver m

1. loaf, bread

• Swedish: lev

• audio

  (file)

From Old Norse lifr, from Proto-Germanic *librō, from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to smudge, stick”), from *ley- (“to be slimy, be sticky, glide”).

lever c

1. (anatomy) a liver

lever

1. present tense of leva.