levin

plural levins

1. archaiccountablepoeticuncountableLightning; a bolt of lightning; also, a bright flame or light.

   And forth rith al so leuin fares.

   [c. 1280, “Godrich Displays Great Prowess”, in Frederic Madden, editor, The Lay of Havelok the Dane (in Middle English), London: N[icholas] Trübner & Company, published 1868, page 76, line 2690

   4 more examples

   His soul was like the night around us now, dark, and sultry, and silent, but lighted up by the red levin of wrath and torn by the bellowings of thunder-passion.

   1864, George MacDonald, The Old Nurse's Story

   [N]either blood in face nor life in hart / It left, but both did quite drye vp, and blaſt; / As percing leuin, which the inner part / Of euery thing conſumes, and calcineth by art.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 48, page 475

   [...] I think if some of those amongst whom he hurls the Greek fire of his sarcasm, and over whom he flashes the levin-brand of his denunciation, were to take his warnings in time – they or their seed might escape a fatal Ramoth-Gilead.

   1848, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Preface to the Second London Edition”, in Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. [...] In Two Volumes, copyright edition, volume I, Leipzig: Bernh[ard] Tauchnitz Jun., →OCLC, page IX

   Never, elsewhen, from heaven when all serene / Fell there more levin-bolts; nor flamed so oft / Comets with curses fraught.

   1854, Virgil, “The First Georgic”, in W[illiam] Sewell, transl., The Georgics of Virgil, Literally and Rhythmically Translated, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: J. H. Parker, →OCLC, pages 20–21

present singular third person levins · participle present levining · participle past levined · past levined

1. archaicintransitivepoeticTo strike, as lightning.

   Tremendous bursts of electric discharge levined through the clouds or lit up their under surfaces and all the rain-soaked earth, […]

   1937, J. Allan Dunn, The Trouble at Tres Piños

plural Levins · alternative Leven · alternative Levene · alternative Lewin

1. countableuncountableA surname from Hebrew.

   1 more example

   According to the most recent available disclosures, UDP has spent more than $910,000 backing Stevens. AIPAC, a hawkish pro-Israel group that supports both Democrats and Republicans, endorsed Stevens and has attacked Levin, who is Jewish and comes from one of Michigan’s most prominent Jewish political families, over his willingness to criticize some Israeli policy.

   2022 July 12, Gregory Krieg, “Progressive pro-Israel group takes on AIPAC in Michigan Democratic primary fight”, in CNN

2. countableuncountableA male given name.
3. countableuncountableA town in Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand. Named after William Levin.

   The latter's loss of time between Manakau and Levin was due to the mishap of dropping the tablet at Ohau, which entailed an out-of-course stop of 3 min. to recover it.

   1939 November 28, “Overseas Railways: Locomotive Performance in New Zealand”, in Railway Magazine, page 351