Other forms: levied, levies, levying
To levy is to impose a tax or a charge. Levy a fine, levy a tax, an apprenticeship levy.
As a noun it is the charge itself, usually one raised for a specific purpose rather than into general funds, which is what separates a levy from a tax. The old military sense is to raise troops — to levy an army — and it comes from the same idea of raising.
1verblevyTo impose a tax or a charge.
“The city plans to levy a tax on tourists who stay overnight.”
levy is an imposing.
Old French levee comes from lever, to raise, from Latin levare. To levy is literally to raise something.
Latin
lēvō — to raise, lift
Old French
levee
Anglo-Norman
leve
English, today
levy
Built from
From Anglo-Norman leve, from Old French levee, from lever (“to raise”), from Latin lēvō (“to raise, lift”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA