How to Use lever in a Sentence

lever

1 of 2 noun
  • They used their money as a lever to gain political power.
  • Then place the opener over the cork with the handle up, and push the lever down.
    Maya Polton, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 Jan. 2023
  • And the sliding lock lever along the back end of the neck is quite secure.
    PCMAG, 26 Jan. 2024
  • The system is engaged with a lever on the floor, as in the Cherokee.
    Don Schroeder, Car and Driver, 29 May 2023
  • The flow control lever is easy to reach from the tractor’s seat.
    Renee Freemon Mulvihill, Better Homes & Gardens, 24 July 2023
  • But the Warriors don’t have many levers to pull at this point.
    Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 19 Mar. 2024
  • Once the coals are ready for the grill, simply lift the chimney and squeeze the lever to open the trap door and dump out the coals.
    Melissa Mayer, Field & Stream, 30 Jan. 2023
  • First, a small lever with a suction cup at the end of it picks up the paper bowl.
    Scott Kirsner, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Jan. 2023
  • The best part is that it can all be done with the click of a button—no finicky dials or levers.
    Jenna Clark, Better Homes & Gardens, 6 Sep. 2023
  • Push forward on a lever to adjust the throttle and steer with a small wheel at the helm.
    WIRED, 14 Mar. 2023
  • Keep the load out as far as possible to keep the lever long to challenge your abs.
    Brett Williams, Men's Health, 13 July 2023
  • But the two levers (which adjust seat height and backrest recline) are easy to use.
    Jenni Gritters, wsj.com, 20 Sep. 2023
  • Cord obviously had to learn where the levers are and the buttons are that make a film set work.
    Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 14 Dec. 2023
  • The car is started by simply pulling a lever alongside the driver’s seat.
    Mark Fischetti, Scientific American, 1 Feb. 2023
  • There is a stitch dial, reverse lever, a hand wheel, and a foot control.
    Brandi Fuller, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 Apr. 2023
  • Use the foot lever to push the claws into the ground before pulling it up with the weed securely attached.
    Andrea Wurzburger, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Sep. 2023
  • The pop-out roof panel is now attached with three hand levers rather than four bolts and a ratchet wrench.
    Csaba Csere, Car and Driver, 7 Sep. 2023
  • Your lower back will work as a lever throughout the stiff leg deadlift as push your glutes back.
    Jeff Tomko, Men's Health, 19 Apr. 2023
  • That depends on whether its economies deploy some of the levers at their disposal to adapt.
    Mark John, Anne Kauranen, and Gergely Szakacs, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Feb. 2024
  • There are no extra shift levers jutting out of the tunnel, no front hubs to lock, just a small switch inside the glove box.
    David E. Davis Jr., Car and Driver, 18 Mar. 2023
  • This isn’t the first time China has used exports of rare earth metals as a control lever.
    Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 18 Apr. 2023
  • In order to steer the mower, the levers need to be turned in or pushed in opposite directions.
    Kat De Naoum, Better Homes & Gardens, 28 Apr. 2023
  • Fore and aft adjustments are made by way of a lever at the front of the seats, but height adjustments require a tool kit.
    Bradley Iger, Robb Report, 24 Feb. 2023
  • The gear lever has been moved rearwards, closer to the driver, and is now a shaft of carbon fiber rather than a spindly metal wand.
    Tim Pitt, Robb Report, 11 July 2023
  • Cyclists who don’t mind getting their hands dirty carry a spare tube, a pump, tire levers and a multi-tool to fix the flat on the spot.
    Idaho Statesman, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Benepe would grasp the fake switch’s bright-red lever and pull it up, as Marsden and a colleague rushed to push buttons on their laptops.
    Adam Iscoe, The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2023
  • Most of all, O’Leary rightly worries that the top airline brass don’t have their hands on the levers and valves that power the factory floor.
    Shawn Tully, Fortune, 23 Mar. 2024
  • Then install the new flapper by attaching it to the two plastic studs and connecting the chain to the flush handle lever.
    Elizabeth Gulino, House Beautiful, 24 Mar. 2023
  • Unlock the depth control lever and adjust the saw’s shoe to expose no more than enough blade to safely make a crosscut.
    Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 10 Aug. 2023
  • The Sofort 2 is a stylish instant film camera, too, with a lever that even prints Instax Mini film.
    Sheena Vasani, The Verge, 5 Oct. 2023
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lever

2 of 2 verb
  • He levered the rock out of the hole.
  • That means the hats must have been levered upward and then tilted down onto the head of the statue.
    Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 5 June 2018
  • Not when there is fear to be exploited, cracks to lever into chasms.
    John Archibald | Jarchibald@al.com, al, 29 Jan. 2020
  • Use the plastic wrap overhang to lever the terrine out of the pan before flipping it over for serving.
    Cathy Barrow, The Denver Post, 5 Apr. 2017
  • Also undo the lift-rod assembly, all the parts that lever the stopper up and down.
    Roy Berendson, Popular Mechanics, 13 Sep. 2020
  • All would reduce the incentive and ability to lever up the housing stock.
    Emily Stewart, Vox, 18 Sep. 2018
  • If the tactic of threatening no-deal to lever concessions out of the EU has failed, so have attempts to bully MPs.
    The Economist, 5 Sep. 2019
  • No matter which levers Mr. Lampert pulled, Sears racked up hefty losses.
    Suzanne Kapner, WSJ, 15 Oct. 2018
  • The hat was then turned 90 degrees and levered onto the statue’s head and the ramp was removed, forming wings on either side of the moai that still exist.
    Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 13 June 2018
  • If the old washer is hard to remove, try levering it off with a screwdriver.
    The Editors Of House Beautiful, House Beautiful, 11 Feb. 2015
  • The next morning, a dentist levered my teeth back into place with a tongue depressor and cemented them in line.
    Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2019
  • One, who cannot be named for military reasons, painfully levers himself up, to prop himself against the side of his hospital bed.
    Euan McKirdy and Ivan Watson, CNN, 25 June 2017
  • The grooves could have allowed the builders to lower the stones onto the walls, roll them into place using rollers, lever them up to remove the rollers, then extract the ropes from under the blocks without lifting them back up.
    Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 29 Aug. 2019
  • Everyone could borrow to trade, levering up as much as 10-to-1.
    Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2019
  • The safest portion, which would typically return 0.6 percent a year, can be levered up to 6 percent in some cases.
    Sridhar Natarajan, Bloomberg.com, 26 Sep. 2017
  • Per a recent strategic plan, the company is slated to raise $7 billion and de-lever its balance sheet by selling a part of the Lottery and Sports Betting businesses.
    Trefis Team, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2022
  • Were it to lever up to two times Ebitda, Altria could spend another $6 billion on top of its Cronos investment without upsetting investors.
    Carol Ryan, WSJ, 7 Dec. 2018
  • Some analysts have expressed concern that shrinking revenue, modest earnings growth and a ballooning balance sheet could cause the company to lever up too quickly for the next deal.
    Kimberly Chin, WSJ, 22 Feb. 2019
  • That follows efforts to ease mortgage lending in October, as well as efforts to permit stronger developers to lever back up in the domestic bond market to take over projects from weaker ones.
    Nathaniel Taplin, WSJ, 10 Dec. 2021
  • The deal represents Skyworks’ largest acquisition on record and is more than double its last reported cash balance of $1 billion, requiring the currently debt-free chip maker to lever up.
    Dan Gallagher, WSJ, 24 Apr. 2021
  • The project involves replacing the door knobs and associated hardware of all the classroom doors with levered handles that can be locked from the inside, according to Don Aicardi, the school district’s director of finance and operations.
    BostonGlobe.com, 6 Nov. 2019
  • Banks are ramping up a business that was popular before the financial crisis—offering investors ways to lever up sometimes illiquid and complex investments to amplify their returns.
    Christopher Whittall, WSJ, 17 Dec. 2017
  • For example, EnerVest Ltd, a private-equity firm that levered portfolios of energy assets with debt is in danger of seeing its equity investments wiped out in at least one fund.
    Soma Biswas, WSJ, 4 Aug. 2017
  • Gradually raising capital standards would de-lever the financial system, reducing the risk of future bailouts and limiting one way the super-rich in the financial sector magnify their wealth.
    Robert Stein, National Review, 15 Nov. 2020
  • No sensible business school professor would advocate that the CEO of a Fortune 500 company should lever his personal fortune to buy a completely unrelated, money-losing business.
    Anne Sraders, Fortune, 30 Apr. 2022
  • These potential environmental requirements will lever the airlines to operate new planes with higher levels of fuel economy sooner rather than later.
    Shawn Tully, Fortune, 20 June 2020
  • Instead of implementing robust accountability, corruption charges have traditionally been wielded as a tool to weaken civilian leaders and ultimately lever them out of power.
    Omar Waraich, The Atlantic, 28 July 2017
  • He levered the rock out of the hole.
  • That means the hats must have been levered upward and then tilted down onto the head of the statue.
    Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 5 June 2018
  • Not when there is fear to be exploited, cracks to lever into chasms.
    John Archibald | Jarchibald@al.com, al, 29 Jan. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lever.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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