different between levee vs leavee

English

Alternative forms

• levée (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l?vi/, /?l?v.e?/
• Rhymes: -?vi, -?ve?
• Homophone: levy (some pronunciations only)
• (US) enPR: lev'i, IPA^(key): /?l?vi/, /l??vi/, /l??ve?/
• Rhymes: -?vi
• Homophones: levy, Levy

Etymology 1

From French levée, from lever (“to raise, rise”).

Noun

levee (plural levees)

1. An embankment to prevent inundation; as, the levees along the Mississippi.
2. (US) The steep bank of a river.
3. (US) The border of an irrigated field.
4. (US) A pier or other landing place on a river.

Synonyms

• (embankment): dike, floodwall

Translations

Verb

levee (third-person singular simple present levees, present participle leveeing, simple past and past participle leveed)

1. (US, transitive) To keep within a channel by means of levees.

   to levee a river

Translations

Etymology 2

From French levé variant of the noun lever (“the act of getting up in the morning”).

Noun

levee (plural levees)

1. (obsolete) The act of rising; getting up, especially in the morning after rest.
   • c. 1763, Thomas Gray, letter to Mr. Nichols

     And look before you were up in the morning, though you were a punctual courtier at the sun's levee

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 414:

     The sturdy hind now attends the levee of his fellow-labourer the ox […]

2. A reception of visitors held after getting up.
3. A formal reception, especially one given by royalty or other leaders.

Verb

levee (third-person singular simple present levees, present participle leveeing, simple past and past participle leveed)

1. (transitive) To attend the levee or levees of.
   • 1728, Edward Young, The Love of Fame

     He levees all the great.

Anagrams

• eleve, leeve

Old French

Verb

levee

1. feminine singular of the past participle of lever

English

Etymology

leave +? -ee

Noun

leavee (plural leavees)

1. The person in a relationship who is left by the other.
   • 2009, Lisa Rene Reynolds, Still a Family: A Guide to Good Parenting Through Divorce (page 125)

     The leavee is the one who may not have been quite ready to give up on the relationship and so may feel still committed in some way to the marriage.