Levy

v. t. [imp. & p. p. LEVIED; p. pr. & vb. n. LEVYING.] [Fr. lever. See LAVE and LEAVE.]

1. To raise, give up, or desist from, as a siege. [Obs.]
2. To raise; to collect; said of troops, to form into an army by enrollment, conscription, &c.

Augustine, being refused of the Christian Britons, inflamed Ethelbert, king of Kent, to levy his power, and to war against them. Fuller. 3. To raise or collect by assessment; as, to levy taxes, toll, tribute, or contributions. My ransom, then, will soon be levied. Shak. 4. (Law.) (a.) To gather or exact; as, to levy money; to erect, build, or set up; to make or construct; to raise or cast up; as, to levy a mill, dike, ditch, a nuisance, &c. Cowell. Blackstone. (b.) To take or seize on execution; to collect by execution; to subject property, real or personal, to the operation of an execution. To levy a fine (Law), to commence and carry on a suit for assuring the title to lands or tenements. Blackstone. — To levy war, to raise or begin war; to take arms for attack; to attack.

n. 1. The act of levying or taking by authority or force for public service, as troops, taxes, &c.

2. That which is levied or taken by authority, as an army, tribute, &c. “The . . . service of organizing and disciplining the Irish levies.” Macaulay.
3. War raised. [Obs.] Shak.
4. A small coin, or its value, being twelve and a half cents, or eleven pence. [Local. U. S.]
5. (Law.) The taking or seizure of property on executions to satisfy judgments, or on warrants for the collection of taxes; a collecting by execution.

Levy in mass [Fr. levée en masse], a requisition of all liable to bear arms for service.