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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Leveling

Level \Lev"el\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Leveled (-[e^]ld) or Levelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Leveling or Levelling.]

  1. To make level; to make horizontal; to bring to the condition of a level line or surface; hence, to make flat or even; as, to level a road, a walk, or a garden.

  2. To bring to a lower level; to overthrow; to topple down; to reduce to a flat surface; to lower.

    And their proud structures level with the ground.
    --Sandys.

    He levels mountains and he raises plains.
    --Dryden.

  3. To bring to a horizontal position, as a gun; hence, to point in taking aim; to aim; to direct.

    Bertram de Gordon, standing on the castle wall, leveled a quarrel out of a crossbow.
    --Stow.

  4. Figuratively, to bring to a common level or plane, in respect of rank, condition, character, privilege, etc.; as, to level all the ranks and conditions of men.

  5. To adjust or adapt to a certain level; as, to level remarks to the capacity of children.

    For all his mind on honor fixed is, To which he levels all his purposes.
    --Spenser.

Leveling

Leveling \Lev"el*ing\, n. [Written also levelling.]

  1. The act or operation of making level.

  2. (Surveying) The art or operation of using a leveling instrument for finding a horizontal line, for ascertaining the differences of level between different points of the earth's surface included in a survey, for establishing grades, etc., as in finding the descent of a river, or locating a line of railroad.

    Leveling instrument. See Surveyor's level, under Level, n.

    Leveling staff, a graduated rod or staff used in connection with a leveling instrument for measuring differences of level between points.

Wiktionary
leveling

alt. (context US English) (present participle of level English) n. The process of making something level. vb. (context US English) (present participle of level English)

WordNet
leveling
  1. n. changing the ground level to a smooth horizontal or gently sloping surface [syn: grading]

  2. complete destruction of a building [syn: razing, tearing down, demolishing]

  3. the act of making equal or uniform [syn: equalization, equalisation]

Wikipedia
Leveling (philosophy)

Leveling is a social process in which the uniqueness of the individual is rendered non-existent by assigning equal value to all aspects of human endeavors, thus missing all the intricacies and subtle complexities of human identity. Leveling is highly associated with existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.

Usage examples of "leveling".

Instead of leveling off or repeating in cycles, the simulated population unexpectedly boomed and crashed erratically from one generation to the next, even though there was nothing random in the model itself.

Tottery, white-haired, half senile, the mage had gone down the line of horseboys and come back twice before stopping in front of Gawaine and leveling a trembly, liver-spotted hand at his nose.

In the corner of his eye he saw James Nichols and Tony Adducci leveling their pistols and firing shots into the small windows alongside the farmhouse.

X-wing came swinging up behind the skips, her nose already leveling off to fire.

The three torpedoes nosed into the sea with small splashes for such a weight of steel, plunging deeply but quickly leveling off at their preset depth.

They also tended to preach a Tolstoian kind of humanism, and dabbled to varying degrees with ideas of social leveling.

In search of a larger life, they found only a greater death, a rancid leveling of just those differentiations that allowed their search in the first place.

World Soul and Eco-Noetic Self is misinterpreted in terms of a flatland holism that, in leveling qualitative distinctions, paralyzes actions that would further the descent of that World Soul.

Then it would drop off again, like a giant multitiered slide of an amusement park, dipping, leveling out, then dipping again.

The outlanders turned to face the spirit, leveling their weapons at him.

He was leveling the barrel when he was shocked to see twin Colts materialize in the hick's hands.

There's some kind of equationnot a mechanical leveling off, but compensatory gains and losses.

More halothane, and he watched the ectopic leveling become bigeminal—two small beeps.

Thus, by simply absolutizing the biosphere, by privileging it in an ontology of regressive leveling, the Eco camp contributes precisely nothing to noospheric integration (and thus everything to biospheric disintegration).

Like them or not, guns were a leveling phenomenon, a democratizing one, in the long run.