white-livered
Americanadjective
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lacking courage; cowardly; lily-livered.
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lacking in vitality or spirit; pale; unhealthy.
adjective
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lacking in spirit or courage
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pallid and unhealthy in appearance
Etymology
Origin of white-livered
First recorded in 1540–50
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.
I have spared him--he's a white-livered hound!--both once and twice, and we must go to the end with it since no better can be!
From Project Gutenberg
Your father and me's had a difference, all along of that clerk of his, Jeremiah, Mrs. Pamflett's white-livered son.
From Project Gutenberg
But these were mocked at by the rest, as white-livered, and Morgan having divided the provisions between the garrison and the St. Catherine129 prisoners, reviewed his men, and examined himself their arms and ammunition.
From Project Gutenberg
The idea of Major Mildmanners pitching into him—him, that was once the pride of the Second Dragoons!—and praising that white-livered parson!
From Project Gutenberg
By my troth, Arnold," said Dauntrees, as they strode forward, "although we jest at yonder white-livered vintner, this matter we have in hand might excuse an ague in a stouter man.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
