leverage

Word family

le·ver·age1 /ˈliːvərɪdʒ $ ˈle-, ˈliː-/ noun [uncountableU]

1 EFFECT/INFLUENCEinfluence that you can use to make people do what you want 影响

diplomatic leverage by the US

美国的外交影响力

2. POWERthe action, power, or use of a lever 杠杆作用；杠杆力量；杠杆的使用

Examples from the Corpus

leverage• The national brewers' leverage has been intensified as a result of the rise of lager.• The consequent leverage is the most distinctive feature of our financial era.• The attraction of options and futures, our specialty item, was that they offered both liquidity and fantastic leverage.• Turkey has promised not to use its control of the rivers for political leverage.• Kerrey and the commission, however, had little political leverage and were easily ignored by both Democrats and Republicans.• Yet the report looks to the institutional investors to exercise the leverage necessary to persuade companies to comply with the code.• Nader is relishing the leverage and the limelight.

Related topics: Finance

leverage2 verb [transitiveT] American EnglishAmE technical

1 BFto make money available to someone in order to invest or to buy something such as a company 为…融资，使借贷经营

the use of public funds to leverage private investment

动用公共基金为私人投资项目融资

2 to spread or use resources (=money, skills, buildings etc that an organization has available), ideas etc again in several different ways or in different parts of a company, system etc 充分利用〔资源、观点等〕

leverage something across something

Reusable software is leveraged across many applications.

可重复使用的软件得到广泛应用。

Examples from the Corpus

leverage• He then began a forty-year process of leveraging his holdings to acquire additional media resources in other parts of the world.• The agreement promises to leverage Kalpana's strengths in Ethernet switching technology to boost Sparcserver network performance and availability.• Emap Partenaires was established to develop ancillary revenues leveraging off our market leading positions.• At the same time, their capacity to leverage private capital in support of these developments has varied considerably.• Development programs often use public funds to leverage private investment.• These and other economic development proposals have emphasized targeting and leveraging to get maximum use of the federal dollars.

From Longman Business Dictionary

leveragele·ver·age1 /ˈliːvərɪdʒˈle-, ˈliː-/ noun [uncountableU]

1the influence that one person or organization has on another

It uses its considerable economic leverage to influence other nations.

2FINANCE the amount of borrowing that a company has in relation to its SHARE CAPITAL (=the money it has from selling its shares). If the company makes more profit by investing this borrowed money in its business activities than it pays in interest, the company’s shareholders will obtain higher payments from their shares. But if the company makes less profit than it pays in interest, shareholders will receive less money

The company has reduced its leverage, primarily through asset sales.

a warning to investors about the risks of high leverage

Heavy leverage and aggressive expansion made for a weak balance sheet.