From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishleveragele‧ver‧age1 /ˈliːvərɪdʒ $ ˈle-, ˈliː-/ noun [uncountable] 1 EFFECT/INFLUENCEinfluence that you can use to make people do what you want diplomatic leverage by the US2 POWERthe action, power, or use of a lever
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.leverageleverage2 verb [transitive] American English technical 1 BFto make money available to someone in order to invest or to buy something such as a company the use of public funds to leverage private investment2 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 etcleverage something across something Reusable software is leveraged across many applications.→ See Verb tableExamples 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 Dictionaryleveragele‧ver‧age1 /ˈliːvərɪdʒˈle-, ˈliː-/ noun [uncountable]1the influence that one person or organization has on anotherIt 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 moneyThe company has reduced its leverage, primarily through asset sales.a warning to investors about the risks of high leverageHeavy leverage and aggressive expansion made for a weak balance sheet. → debt leverage → financial leverage → loan leverage → see also debt-equity ratioleverageleverage2 verb [transitive]FINANCE to use borrowed money to buy a particular company or investmentTheir capacity to leverage private capital in support of these projects has been variable. —leveraging noun [uncountable]Leveraging can double your return. → leverage something → up→ See Verb table 