- The definition of levy is a required or collected fee or tax.
An example of levy is sales tax.
- Levy is defined as to force into military service or to declare and fight in a war.
An example of levy is the military draft.
levy
pl. lev′ies
- an imposing and collecting of a tax or other payment
- an amount levied; tax, fine, etc.
- the enlistment, usually compulsory, of personnel, as for military service
- a group so enlisted
Origin of levy
Middle English levee ; from MFr, feminine past participle of lever, to raise: see lever lev′ied, lev′y·ing
- to impose or collect (a tax, tribute, fine, etc.)
- to enlist (troops) for military service, usually by force
- to wage (war)
- to make a levy
- Law to seize property in order to satisfy a judgment: often with on
levy
verb
lev·ied, lev·y·ing, lev·iesverb
, transitive- a. To impose (a tax or fine, for example) on someone.b. To impose a tax, fine, or other punishment on (a person or business).
- To enlist or conscript into military service: levy recruits.
- To declare and wage (a war).
verb
, intransitive To confiscate property, especially in accordance with a legal judgment.
noun
pl. lev·ies- The act or process of levying.
- Money, property, or troops levied.
Origin of levy
Middle English levien, from leve, levy, tax, from Old French levee, from feminine past participle of lever, to raise; see lever.Related Forms:
- lev′i·er
noun
levy
Verb
(third-person singular simple present levies, present participle levying, simple past and past participle levied)
- To impose (a tax or fine) to collect monies due, or to confiscate property
- to levy a tax
- To raise or collect by assessment; to exact by authority.
- To draft someone into military service
- To raise; to collect; said of troops, to form into an army by enrolment, conscription. etc.
- To wage war
- To raise, as a siege.
- (law) To erect, build, or set up; to make or construct; to raise or cast up.
- to levy a mill, dike, ditch, a nuisance, etc.
Noun
(plural levies)
- The act of levying.
- The tax, property or people so levied.
Origin
From Anglo-Norman leve, from Old French levee, from lever "to raise".
Noun
(plural levies)
- (US, obsolete, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia) The Spanish real of one eighth of a dollar, valued at elevenpence when the dollar was rated at seven shillings and sixpence.
Origin
Contraction of elevenpence.
levy - Legal Definition
n
- A tax or penalty.
- The state’s acting of seizing and selling property to satisfy a tax or other liability.
