lever

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

  Audio (Gloucestershire):

  (file)

  Hyphenation: le‧ver

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈlɛv.ɚ/, /ˈli.vɚ/,^[2][3]

  Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈliː.və/

  Hyphenation: lev‧er, le‧ver

• Rhymes: -iːvə(ɹ), -ɛvə(ɹ)
• Homophones: leaver, Lever

From Middle English lever, levore, levour, from Old French leveor, leveur (“a lifter, lever (also Old French and French levier)”), from Latin levātor (“a lifter”), from levō (“to raise”). Doublet of levator.

lever (plural levers)

1. (mechanics) A rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (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.
      • 1952 September, “Modernised Pull-and-Push Trains”, in Railway Magazine, page 617:

        Retractable steps and handrails are provided on each side of the cars. The steps, which are under the control of the guard, are operated by hand levers in the entrance vestibule.

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

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

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

1. (transitive) To move with a lever.

   With great effort and a big crowbar I managed to lever the beam off the floor.

   • 1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter VII, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:

     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.

2. (figuratively, transitive) To use, operate or move (something) like a lever (physically).
   • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 150:

     Sullen now, with stultified spleen, Mrs Dibble grappled her crutches and levered herself upright after an ungainly struggle.

   • 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, published 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.

   • 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation‎^[2], archived from the original on 22 May 2024:

     The guard at the door coughed up blood, and died instantly. Fina was carrying an empty rifle with a sharpened bayonet, and she'd thrust it straight up through his neck, severing the spinal cord. She levered him off the front stoop and into the bushes, then stood up on the tips of her toes to peer through the window in the door.

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

     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 December 8, Robert McCrum, “Biographies of the year — review”, in The Guardian:

     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 UK, 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 Middle English lever, comparative of leve, leef (“dear, beloved, lief”), equivalent to lief +‎ -er. Related to German lieber (“rather”).

• liever

lever (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Rather.
   • [1531, William Tyndale, transl.], The prophete Ionas […], [Antwerp: Merten de Keyser], chapter iiij:[3]:

     Now therfore take my life from me / for I had leuer dye then liue.

   • [1545?], John Heywood, The Playe Called The Foure PP […], London: […] Wyllyam Myddylton, →OCLC; reprinted as John S. Farmer, editor, The Play Called The Four PP […] (The Tudor Facsimile Texts), London; Edinburgh: […] T. C. & E. C. Jack, […], 1908, →OCLC, signature [E.ii.], verso:

     The wolde ſome mayſter perhappes clowt ye / But as for me ye nede nat doute ye / For I had leuer be without ye / Then haue ſuche beſyneſſe aboute ye.

   • 1571, John Calvin, “Iohn Calvin to the Godly Readers Sendeth Greeting”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The Psalmes of Dauid and Others. With M. Iohn Caluin’s Commentaries, London: […] Thomas East and Henry Middelton; for Lucas Harison, and G[e]orge Byshop, →OCLC, 1st part:

     For although they were worthy of any puniſhment: yit had I leuer they might haue flooriſhed in welfare and ſafetie: […]

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 128:

     For leuer had I die, then 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 September 21, Tim Blanning, “The reinvention of the night”, in Times Literary Supplement:

     Louis XIV’s day began with a lever at 9 and ended (officially) at around midnight.

• “lever”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “lever”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• Revel, elver, revel

From Old Danish liuær, from Old Norse lifr, from Proto-Germanic *librō, cognate with English liver and German Leber. The Germanic word may be an irregular remodelling of the Proto-Indo-European word for "liver", *yókʷr̥, cf. Ancient Greek ἧπαρ (hêpar) and Latin iecur.

• IPA^(key): [ˈlewˀɐ]

lever c (singular definite leveren, plural indefinite levere)

1. liver

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): [ˈleːʋɐ], [ˈleːwɐ]

lever

1. present of leve

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): [leˈʋeɐ̯ˀ]

lever or levér

1. imperative of levere

• IPA^(key): /ˈleːvər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: le‧ver
• Rhymes: -eːvər

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

lever f (plural levers, diminutive levertje n)

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

• Afrikaans: lewer
• Berbice Creole Dutch: lefre
• Negerhollands: leber
• → Aukan: lebii
• → Indonesian: lever
• → Saramaccan: lebèn
• → Sranan Tongo: lefre
  • → Caribbean Javanese: léfer

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

lever

1. inflection of leveren:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

Inherited from Middle French lever, from Old French lever, from Latin levāre (“to lift; to lighten, relieve”), from levis (“light, not heavy”).

• IPA^(key): /lə.ve/

• Audio (France); “se lever” [sø lø.ve]:

  (file)

• Homophones: levai, levé, levée, levées, levés, levez

lever

1. (transitive) to raise, lift

   Antonym: baisser

2. (reflexive) to rise, stand up

   Antonym: s'abaisser

3. (reflexive, of celestial bodies) to rise, come up

   Antonym: se coucher

   Le Soleil se lève à l'est et se couche à l'ouest. ― The Sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

4. (reflexive) to get up (out of bed)

   Antonyms: se coucher, s'allonger

   Je me lève, je me lave. ― I get up, I wash.

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

This verb is conjugated like parler, except the -e- /ə/ of the second-to-last syllable becomes -è- /ɛ/ when the next vowel is a silent or schwa -e-, as in the third-person singular present indicative il lève and the third-person singular future indicative il lèvera.

lever m (plural levers)

1. the act of getting up in the morning

• “lever”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• lèvre

le- +‎ ver

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

lever

1. (transitive) to knock down

• lever in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈlevər/ [ˈle.fər]
• Rhymes: -evər
• Syllabification: le‧ver

From Dutch lever.

• liver

lèvêr (plural lever-lever)

1. liver

   Synonym: ( more common) hati

Borrowed from Dutch leveren (“to deliver”).

lever (active melever, passive dilever)

1. (colloquial, rare) to send goods; to deliver

• “lever” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

lēver

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of lēvō

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.

lever

1. alternative form of lyvere (“liver”)

lever

1. alternative form of lyvere (“living being”)

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)

• skrumplever

lever

1. present tense 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): /ˈleʋːər/

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

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

• livr (superseded)

• skrumplever

• IPA^(key): /²leːʋɛr/

lever

1. present of leve

• “lever” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Latin lēvāre.

lever

1. to lift (up)
2. (reflexive, se lever) 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) liver

• levra (“clot, coagulate”)

lever

1. present indicative of leva

• lever in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• lever in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• lever in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• Svensk MeSH