spirit level


nounSurveying.
  1. 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.

Origin of spirit level

1
First recorded in 1760–70

Words Nearby spirit level

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use spirit level in a sentence

  • The terrain was fairly level, but a spirit level would have shown a marked tilt to the east.

    David Lannarck, Midget | George S. Harney
  • Fasten a double or two-way spirit level on the front left-hand corner.

  • If it were not for this principle of capillary attraction, it would be difficult to form a bubble of air in a spirit level.

  • Place it lightly in a vice, and in such a position that a spirit-level on top shows the bubble exactly in the centre.

  • With chain and spirit level the route was carefully surveyed from Lynchburg to the Ohio.

British Dictionary definitions for spirit level

spirit level

noun
  1. 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