levin

American

[lev-in] / ˈlɛv ɪn /

noun

Archaic.

lightning.

levin British

/ ˈlɛvɪn /

noun

an archaic word for lightning

"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

Etymology

Origin of levin

1200–50; Middle English levene, obscurely akin to Gothic lauhmuni (akin to Latin lūmen light)

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Tottering above In her highest noon The enamoured moon blushes with love While to listen The red levin With the rapid pleiads even Which were seven Pauses in heaven!

From Contemporary American Composers Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and Compositions by Hughes, Rupert

Avengingly our from the cloud Come the levin, the bolt, and the ball!

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 329, March, 1843 by Various

Upon my heart It lay a heavy hour: features like thine Should glow with other message than the shine Of the earth-burrowing levin, and the start That cleaveth horrid gulfs!

From The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2 by MacDonald, George

In the eyeholes of the skull two opals flamed with an evil levin.

From The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Marquis, Don

Two mighty nations make the world their field, Deaming the world is for their heirloom given— Against the freedom of all lands they wield This—Neptune's trident; that—the Thund'rer's levin.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 by Various

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023