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dumpy level

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noun Surveying.
an instrument consisting of a spirit level mounted under and parallel to a telescope, the latter being rigidly attached to its supports.
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Origin of dumpy level

First recorded in 1830–40
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use dumpy level in a sentence

  • Wolsey now lodged at Esher, where his spirits soon fell—if we may be allowed an engineering phrase—to a very dumpy level.

    The Comic History Of England|Gilbert Abbott A'Beckett

British Dictionary definitions for dumpy level

dumpy level

noun
surveying a levelling instrument consisting of a horizontal telescope with various rotational arrangements and a spirit level
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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