1
: a reception held by a person of distinction on rising from bed
2
: an afternoon assembly at which the British sovereign or royal representative receives only men
3
: a reception usually in honor of a particular person
… the years of levees and parades and other suave peacetime occasions.—
Gladys B. Stern
Gladys B. Stern1
a
: an embankment for preventing flooding
b
: a river landing place : pier
2
: a continuous dike or ridge (as of earth) for confining the irrigation areas of land to be flooded
Examples of levee in a Sentence
Noun (2)
the raging floodwaters were too much for the levee to handle
we tied the boat up at the levee and started unloading the fish we had caught
Recent Examples on the Web
Jennifer Jacobs, CBS News, 17 Mar. 2026
California legislators on Tuesday voiced their support for Senate Bill 872 — a bill aimed at reinforcing Delta levees and the State Water Project by directing $300 million annually to the state’s water infrastructure upgrades and repairs.
—Chaewon Chung, Sacbee.com, 17 Mar. 2026
Janee Bolden, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
The flood cycle is longer on the channeled and leveed Mississippi, which is fed by numerous tributaries.
—Amy Graff, New York Times, 3 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for levee
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Noun
But farming communities nationwide have been adversely affected by the president's tariff policy, as global trading partners scaled back agricultural purchases like soybeans in retaliation for higher levees.
—Jennifer Jacobs, CBS News, 17 Mar. 2026
California legislators on Tuesday voiced their support for Senate Bill 872 — a bill aimed at reinforcing Delta levees and the State Water Project by directing $300 million annually to the state’s water infrastructure upgrades and repairs.
—Chaewon Chung, Sacbee.com, 17 Mar. 2026
Verb
In New Orleans, levee failures left about 80 percent of the city underwater, with some areas, like the Lower Ninth Ward, submerged under 12 feet of floodwater.
—Janee Bolden, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
The flood cycle is longer on the channeled and leveed Mississippi, which is fed by numerous tributaries.
—Amy Graff, New York Times, 3 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for levee
Cite this Entry
“Levee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/levee. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
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