levant

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. Chiefly British To leave hurriedly or in secret to avoid unpaid debts.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Rising. Minsheu, 1617;
2. Eastern; coming from the direction in which the sun rises.
3. [capitalized] In geology, appellative of the fourth of Professor H. Rogers's fifteen divisions of the Paleozoic strata in the Appalachian chain, the names of which suggest metaphorically the different natural periods of the day. It is the equivalent of the lower part of the Upper Silurian, and represents the Oneida conglomerate and Medina sandstone of the New York Survey. See Medina sandstone, under sandstone.
4. n. Same as lavant.
5. n. [capitalized] The region east of Italy lying on and near the Mediterranean, sometimes reckoned as extending east to the Euphrates and as taking in the Nile valley, thus including Greece and Egypt; more specifically, the coast-region and islands of Asia Minor and Syria: a name originally given by the Italians.
6. n. An easterly wind blowing up the Mediterranean; a levanter.
7. n. Same as levant morocco.
8. Of or pertaining to or obtained from the Levant.
9. To run away; decamp.
10. Used only in the imperative, in the exclamatory phrase levant me, a mild imprecation much like blow me!
11. n. A bet made by one who expects to evade paying if he loses.
12. n. In leather manufacturing, artificial blood used instead of real blood for obtaining a perfect black.

Wiktionary

1. n. Disappearing or absconding after losing a bet.
2. v. To abscond or run away, especially to avoid paying money or debts.
3. adj. heraldry Rising, of an animal.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. (Law) Rising or having risen from rest; -- said of cattle. See Couchant and levant, under couchant.
2. n. The countries washed by the eastern part of the Mediterranean and its contiguous waters.
3. n. A levanter (the wind so called).
4. adj. obsolete Eastern.
5. v. Colloq. Eng. To run away from one's debts; to decamp.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. run off without paying a debt
2. n. a heavy morocco often used in bookbinding
3. n. the former name for the geographical area of the eastern Mediterranean that is now occupied by Lebanon, Syria, and Israel