white-livered
Americanadjective
-
lacking courage; cowardly; lily-livered.
-
lacking in vitality or spirit; pale; unhealthy.
adjective
-
lacking in spirit or courage
-
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.
That will separate the men from the boys, the ones with guts and the ones too white-livered to face Hoffa and his racketeers.
From Time Magazine Archive
I’ll take it home to Brichtiva my wife,—she’s not so white-livered as thou.”
From One Snowy Night Long ago at Oxford by Irwin, M. (Madelaine)
What your old friend has said is true: I’m a cur and a white-livered coward to sneak in on you the way I did.”
From Captain Pott's Minister by Cooper, Francis L. (Francis Le Roy)
Liv′er-col′our, of the colour of the liver: dark-red; Liv′ered, in compounds, as white-livered, lily-livered=cowardly.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
No need to be white-livered, but every need, in the case of such a man as the squire, to take no hasty needless offence.'
From Robert Elsmere by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
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.
