A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Lever, Lewir, Leaver, n.2 (e.m.E. and late ME. lever, ME. levour (1297). a lever, also gen. a pole; also late north. ME. (1481–2) and mod. north. Eng. dial. lever a roof-beam or couple of naturally curved timber as used in thatched buildings. Also attrib. in lever-puncheon.) —c 1602 Irvine Mun. II. 245.
For four treis coft for Mathew Homill to be lewiris 1672 Sinclair Hydrostaticks 187.
For rendring the metals … more easie to work in making them yeeld … to the force of wedge and leaver 1690 Cochran-Patrick Coinage II. 222.
The head punchons and reverses of the fourtie shilling and ten shilling peices with the other small puncheons for the armes; with the lever puncheons for the inscriptions
