Word.ws English Dictionary

level-coil

level-coil noun: a boisterous and rowdy game formerly played on Christmas, in which players must quickly switch seats at a signal.

Noun

level-coil (uncountable)

  1. (historical) A boisterous and rowdy game formerly played on Christmas, in which players must quickly switch seats at a signal.
    • […] so they did, and entred the Parler, found all this leuell coyle, and his pate broken, his face scratcht […]1600, Robert Armin, “How Leanard a leane Foole, playde at slide groate by himselfe after dinner, when his belly was full.”, in Foole Upon Foole, Or, Six Sortes of Sottes, London: William Ferbrand...
    • A daily Deluge over them does boyle: / The Earth and Water play at Level coyle.1665, Andrew Marvell, The Character of Holland, London: T. Mabb, page 3

Origin of level-coil

A corruption of French lève-cul (“lift the buttocks”).

Questions about level-coil

What does level-coil mean?
Level-coil means a boisterous and rowdy game formerly played on Christmas, in which players must quickly switch seats at a signal.
What part of speech is level-coil?
Level-coil is a noun.

Words near level-coil in the dictionary

  1. level to the ground
  2. level tone
  3. level tones
  4. level up
  5. level with
  6. level-coil
  7. level-handed
  8. level-handedly
  9. level-handedness
  10. level-headed
  11. level-headedly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: level-coil (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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