lily-livered
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of lily-livered
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He won't be so hobbled by his lily-livered inability to give a direct order next time, because, frankly, he won't have to.
From Salon ● Feb. 1, 2022
The genre, notorious in the past for its domineering heroes and lily-livered heroines, “really did evolve” over time.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 30, 2020
And I haven’t even mentioned Michael Russotto, who plays a lily-livered, easily seduced investor who has eyes only for his payout.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2019
The Elizabethans referred to their monarch not as the head of state but as its liver, and woe to any people saddled with a lily-livered leader, whose bloodless cowardice would surely prove their undoing.
From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2017
“The fire-eater's in love with Resa, I said, he’d devour her with his eyes if he could, but the others wouldn't believe me. All the same—to think of a lily-livered coward like you venturing here!”
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
