See Also: levity(dictionary)
levity(dictionary)

levity (iou)



levity noun. M16.
[Latin levitas, from levis light: see -ITY.]
A tendency to make light of serious matters; frivolity; inappropriate jocularity. Now also, an instance of this. M16.
R. W. Emerson But politics..cannot be treated with levity. J. K. Jerome He had not meant to be funny,..levity was not his failing.
b. Lack of constancy or resolution; instability, fickleness. E17.
Gibbon Forgot, with the levity of Barbarians, the services which they had..received.
c. Undignified behaviour, impropriety; an instance of this. E17.
Swift Those..little levities so commonly incident to young ladies.
The quality or fact of having comparatively little weight; lightness. arch. L16.
M. Somerville Hydrogen..rises in the air on account of its levity.
b. A property formerly believed to exist in varying degrees in all substances and which made them tend to rise, as substances possessing gravity tend to sink. Cf. GRAVITY 4a. obsolete exc. Hist. E17.