Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A strong easterly wind of the Mediterranean area.
- noun A native or inhabitant of the Levant.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An easterly wind blowing up the Mediterranean from the direction of the Levant.
- noun One who levants; one who runs away disgracefully.
- noun Specifically One who bets at a horse-race, and runs away without paying the wager lost.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Colloq. Eng. One who levants, or decamps.
- noun A strong easterly wind peculiar to the Mediterranean.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An Easterly wind that blows from the Mediterranean, through the straits of Gibraltar to the Atlantic.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an easterly wind in the western Mediterranean area
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word levanter.
Examples
-
“This storm came like a levanter in the Mediterranean.”
Kenilworth 2004
-
How came it that no aurora of early light, no prelusive murmurs of scrupulosity even from themselves, had run before this wild levanter of change?
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 Various
-
The flight, therefore, of the fair levanter, after so brief an intercourse, was quite enough to upset him.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 Various
-
A gentle levanter was wafting them through the Archipelago.
The Shellback's Progress In the Nineteenth Century Walter Runciman 1892
-
Behind them are seen the heroes Scroggins and Turner; and at the opposite end of the table, a Wake-ful one, but a grosser man than either, and something of the _levanter_: the bald-headed stag on his right goes by the quaint cognomen of the _Japan oracle_, from the retentive memory he possesses on all sporting and pugilistic events.
The English Spy An Original Work Characteristic, Satirical, And Humorous. Comprising Scenes And Sketches In Every Rank Of Society, Being Portraits Drawn From The Life Robert Cruikshank 1828
-
A wind, whose effects were like those of the Spanish levanter, swept the ice of the Strom-fiord, driving the snow to the upper end of the gulf.
Seraphita Honor�� de Balzac 1824
-
Count Massigli [3] measured cannot be searched and torn up from its sleeping depths without a levanter or a monsoon.
The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 Thomas De Quincey 1822
-
How came it that no aurora of early light, no prelusive murmurs of scrupulosity even from themselves, had run before this wild levanter of change?
Theological Essays and Other Papers — Volume 2 Thomas De Quincey 1822
-
Blount took an opportunity to whisper into Raleigh's ear, "This storm came like a levanter in the Mediterranean."
Kenilworth Walter Scott 1801
-
Many a gallant sailing-ship commander has been driven to despair in other days by the friendly levanter failing them just as they were wellnigh through the Gut or had reached the foot of the majestic Rock, when the west wind would assert its power over its feebler adversary, and unless he was in a position to fetch an anchorage behind the Rock or in the bay, their fate was sealed for days, and sometimes weeks, in hard beating to prevent as little ground being lost as possible.
Drake Nelson and Napoleon Runciman, Walter 1919
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.