cod-liver oil

American  

[kod-liv-er] / ˈkɒdˌlɪv ər /

noun

1. a pale-yellow, fixed oil, extracted from the liver of the common cod or of allied species, used in medicine chiefly as a source of vitamins A and D.

---

cod-liver oil British  

noun

1. an oil extracted from the livers of cod and related fish, rich in vitamins A and D and used to treat deficiency of these vitamins

---

Etymology

Origin of cod-liver oil

First recorded in 1605–15

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cod-liver oil

Gabito came into the world lathered in cod-liver oil, his parents claimed, with two brains and the memory of an elephant.

From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2023

Piper had put on clothes she had soaked for a week in cod-liver oil, milk and eggs and walked into the New York City Subway at rush hour.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 12, 2019

Möller and his advertising team then launched a campaign to institutionalise the regular use of cod-liver oil, regardless of whether you were at risk of rickets or not.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 25, 2018

He insisted that the crew start eating the vitamin-rich meat of penguins, which even he described as tasting like a mixture of mammal, fish, and fowl parts, roasted in blood and cod-liver oil.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 13, 2015

The purgante was her own concoction, a mixture of cod-liver oil and mugwort, milk of magnesia, and green papaya juice, sweetened to disguise the fishy, bitter, chalky taste.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago