LEVANT  (from the

French use of the participle of lever, tocoastlands of the eastern Mediterranean Sea from Greece to Egypt, or, in a more restricted and commoner sense, to the Mediterranean coastlands of Asia Minor and Syria . In the 16th and 17th centuries the term " High Levant" was used of the Far East . The phrase " to levant," meaning to abscond, especially of one who runs away leaving debts unpaid, particularly of a betting man or gambler, is taken from the Span. levantar, to lift or break up, in such phrases as levantar la casa, to break up a household, or el campo, to break camp .