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levee
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
levee
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Angelenos continue to argue over flood control, levees and recreational use of the channel.
▪ In flood conditions, however, brimming reservoirs sometimes spill more water than downstream rivers can handle, thus straining the levees.
▪ It also wanted to erect fifteen hundred miles of new levees.
▪ Many islands are below sea level and only the levees prevent them from vanishing.
▪ Officials brought in bulldozers in an effort to build a 5-foot high levee to protect property from the encroaching Sacramento.
▪ Other levees had been breached Friday night in similar efforts to spare populated areas.
▪ The levees caused the areas between to be very subject to flooding and consequently peat formation was further favoured.
▪ The last four of these sub-deltas were formed by levee breaches in 1839, 1860, 1874 and 1891.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Levee

Levee \Lev"ee\, n. [F. lev['e]e, fr. lever to raise. See Lever, and cf. Levy.] An embankment to prevent inundation; as, the levees along the Mississippi; sometimes, the steep bank of a river. [U. S.]

Levee

Levee \Lev"ee\, v. t. To attend the levee or levees of.

He levees all the great.
--Young.

Levee

Levee \Lev"ee\ (l[e^]v"[-e]; often l[e^]v*[=e]" in U. S.), n. [F. lever, fr. lever to raise, se lever to rise. See Lever, n.]

  1. The act of rising. `` The sun's levee.''
    --Gray.

  2. A morning assembly or reception of visitors, -- in distinction from a soir['e]e, or evening assembly; a matin['e]e; hence, also, any general or somewhat miscellaneous gathering of guests, whether in the daytime or evening; as, the president's levee.

    Note: In England a ceremonious day reception, when attended by both ladies and gentlemen, is called a drawing-room.

Levee

Levee \Lev"ee\, v. t. To keep within a channel by means of levees; as, to levee a river. [U. S.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
levee

1719, "natural or artificial embankment to prevent overflow of a river," from New Orleans French levée "raising, lifting; embankment," from French, originally fem. past participle of lever "to raise," from Latin levare "to raise" (see lever).

levee

"morning assembly held by a prince or king (upon rising from bed)," 1670s, from French lever "a raising," noun use of verb meaning "to raise" (see levee (n.1)).

Wiktionary
levee

Etymology 1 n. 1 An embankment to prevent inundation; as, the levees along the Mississippi. 2 (context US English) The steep bank of a river, or border of an irrigated field. 3 (context US English) A pier or other landing place on a river. vb. (context US transitive English) To keep within a channel by means of levees. Etymology 2

n. 1 (context obsolete English) The act of rising; getting up, especially in the morning after rest. 2 A reception of visitors held after getting up. 3 A formal reception, especially one given by royalty or other leaders. vb. (context transitive English) To attend the levee or levees of.

WordNet
levee

n. a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to keep out the sea [syn: dam, dike, dyke]

Wikipedia
Levee

A levee, levée (; ), dike, dyke, embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels. It is usually earthen and often parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines.

Levée (event)

The levée is a New Year's Day social event hosted by the Governor General of Canada, the lieutenant governors, military establishments, municipalities and other institutions.

Levée (ceremony)

The levée (from the French word lever, meaning "getting up" or "rising") has traditionally been a daily moment of intimacy and accessibility to a monarch or leader. It started out as a royal custom, but in America, it later came to refer to a reception by the King’s representatives and, even later, by the president.

Levee (disambiguation)

A levee is a type of riverbank flood control system.

Levee or Levée may also refer to: A ridge or bank formed by deposits of alluvium left behind by the periodic flooding of rivers.

Levee (horse)

Levee was a Kentucky thoroughbred foaled in 1953. She was an accomplished stakes winner and the dam of the champion race mare Shuvee.

Usage examples of "levee".

In another proclamation Lord Ellenborough announced that all the Affghans then in the power of the British government should be permitted to return to their own country, and that the Affghan chiefs who were thus released, were, before they passed the Sutlej, to present themselves at the durbar, or levee, of the governor-general in his camp at Ferozepore.

Le cri des grillons dechirait le grand silence de la nuit, et la lune levee au-dessus des arbres argentait les allees du parc desert.

After Macore and Bly went ashore, the others grew restless, with the bright lights and noise of a massive and living cosmopolitan city crisscrossed with a network of canals and levees.

Macore and Bly went ashore, the others grew restless, with the bright lights and noise of a massive and living cosmopolitan city crisscrossed with a network of canals and levees.

As they chugged steadily upstream, the signs of the city gradually faded from view and pilar saw levee banks and the cotton, cane, and rice fields beyond.

And because he was carrying the lantern, knowing Esteban and probably Cornwallis at least would still be stirring in the house, he made his way to and from the bluff the long way around, through the cane-rows downstream from the house and up the batture, with the levee between the bobbing light and the windows.

He strained to hear what was happening, but there was too much noise from the rush and surge of the wind in the snags of the batture, in the trees beyond the levee, in the hammering air itself.

And the longer he remained, the greater the chances of someone either coming over the top of the levee again, or coming down the batture from upriver, drawn by rumor of the rebellion.

Balis watched Levee move and shift as the Montagne Sergeant walked the rope vicariously with the Great Tara.

It was supernatural, flying at sixty miles an hour through the low Louisiana landscape, the levee always concealing the Mississippi, the sky frequently completely overlaced with green.

As well as these there was of course the brilliant spectrum of officers - the particoloured Scots were particularly admired - people from the various ministries in their comparatively subfusc court dress, and civilians of all sorts, the levee being a wonderful place for discreet contacts, for the gathering of information, and for learning just how influence and favour waxed or waned.

Flooding, siltation, breaks in the natural levees, marshes and ox-bow lakes are common.

The lands are flooded by the unseasonable rains and by the Dark, who have broken the levees on the rivers.

Suddenly, the current of the Jamuna whimsically pushed the tree closer to the levee.

Revolution, Adams received a delegation of them in the Levee Room wearing a dress uniform and sword.