spirit level

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noun Surveying.

a device for determining true horizontal or vertical directions by the centering of a bubble in a slightly curved glass tube or tubes filled with alcohol or ether.

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Also called level.

Origin of spirit level

First recorded in 1760–70

Words nearby spirit level

spirit gum, spiritism, Spirit Lake, spirit lamp, spiritless, spirit level, spirit leveling, spirit of enterprise, spirit of hartshorn, spirit of nitrous ether, spiritoso

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use spirit level in a sentence

Education controls the transmission of values and molds the spirit before dominating the soul.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
If she got caught with a shank, they would up her custody level.
How a ‘Real Housewife’ Survives Prison: ‘I Don’t See [Teresa Giudice] Having a Cakewalk Here’|Michael Howard|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
However, the Air Force is so strapped for people that the ratio has dropped below even that reduced level.
Exclusive: U.S. Drone Fleet at ‘Breaking Point,’ Air Force Says|Dave Majumdar|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“The level of outside support… has not been sufficient enough for them to distance themselves from al Nusra,” Cafarella said.
ISIS Fight Has a Spy Shortage, Intel Chair Says|Kimberly Dozier|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Occasionally, a level will take 20 or more strokes to complete.
Lost For Thousands of Strokes: 'Desert Golfing' Is 'Angry Birds' as Modern Art|Alec Kubas-Meyer|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In Luke it is said, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom.”
Solomon and Solomonic Literature|Moncure Daniel Conway
"Here's my authority, yuh blasted runt," he yelled, and jerked his six-shooter to a level with the policeman's breast.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair
This seems to be contrary to the spirit and intent of the act, which is primarily to centralize reserves in Federal Reserve Banks.
Readings in Money and Banking|Chester Arthur Phillips
Thou fell spirit of pride, prejudice, ignorance, and mauvaise honte!
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846|Various
Light, the symbol of life's joy, seems to be the first language in which the spirit of beauty speaks to a child.
Children's Ways|James Sully

British Dictionary definitions for spirit level

spirit level

noun

a device for setting horizontal surfaces, consisting of an accurate block of material in which a sealed slightly curved tube partially filled with liquid is set so that the air bubble rests between two marks on the tube when the block is horizontal

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