LEVITY • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Levity

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/lˈɛvɪti/ Listen

noun

Levity n.

1.

The quality of weighing less than something else of equal bulk; relative lightness, especially as shown by rising through, or floating upon, a contiguous substance; buoyancy; opposed to gravity. "He gave the form of levity to that which ascended; to that which descended, the form of gravity." "This bubble by reason of its comparative levity to the fluidity that incloses it, would ascend to the top."

2.

Lack of gravity and earnestness in deportment or character; trifling gayety; frivolity; sportiveness; vanity. " A spirit of levity and libertinism." "He never employed his omnipotence out of levity."

3.

Lack of steadiness or constancy; disposition to change; fickleness; volatility. "The levity that is fatigued and disgusted with everything of which it is in possession."

Synonyms: Inconstancy; thoughtlessness; unsteadiness; inconsideration; volatility; flightiness. Levity, Volatility, Flightiness. All these words relate to outward conduct. Levity springs from a lightness of mind which produces a disregard of the proprieties of time and place.Volatility is a degree of levity which causes the thoughts to fly from one object to another, without resting on any for a moment. Flightiness is volatility carried to an extreme which often betrays its subject into gross impropriety or weakness. Levity of deportment, of conduct, of remark; volatility of temper, of spirits; flightiness of mind or disposition.

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Etymology of 'Levity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Levity" Quotes from Famous Books

... which cannot bark" find a pretext in this passage. According to Prov. i. 20: "Wisdom crieth aloud without, she uttereth her voice in the streets." Just as the prohibition of swearing in Matt. v. 34 is qualified by the opposition to Pharisaic levity in cursing and swearing, so here, also, the antithesis to the loud manner of the worldly conqueror must be kept in view,—the contrast to his violence which stakes every thing upon carrying his own will, ...

— Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2 • Ernst Hengstenberg

... Englishman the glory of the exploit; and there has been of late a tendency to deny or slight Map's claims. His deposition, however, rests upon no solid argument, and though it would be exceedingly rash, considering the levity with which the copyists in mediaeval MSS. attributed authorship, to assert positively that Map wrote Lancelot, or the Quest of the Saint Graal, it may be asserted with the utmost confidence that it has not been proved ...

— The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory - (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) • George Saintsbury

... thousands of men who spend their lives in building up all four, lives a gentleman who writes real stories about the real insides of people; and his name is Mr. Walter Besant. But he will insist upon treating his ghosts—he has published half a workshopful of them—with levity. He makes his ghost-seers talk familiarly, and, in some cases, flirt outrageously, with the phantoms. You may treat anything, from a Viceroy to a Vernacular Paper, with levity; but you must behave reverently toward a ghost, ...

— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling

... sufficed to themselves for privacy as well as for society. Nick called attention to this fine phrase of his mother's and said it was awfully neat, while Grace and Biddy looked harmoniously at Julia's clothes. Nick felt nervous and joked a good deal to carry it off—a levity that didn't prevent Julia's saying to him after a moment: "You might have come to see me to-day, you know. Didn't you get my ...

— The Tragic Muse • Henry James

... sundry shares and bank bills; which he shrewdly took care to convert into cash, having as little faith in the system as in the piety of his new convert. A more grave and moral community might have been outraged by this scandalous farce; but the Parisians laughed at it with their usual levity, and contented themselves with making it the subject of a number of songs ...

— The Crayon Papers • Washington Irving

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