Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Cowardly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having (ac cording to an old notion) a light-colored liver, supposed to be due to lack of bile or gall, and hence a pale look—an indication of cowardice; hence, cowardly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having a pale look; feeble; hence, cowardly; pusillanimous; dastardly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Archaic form of
lily-livered .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective easily frightened
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The Meat boys are determined not to make any concessions to the white-livered weaker players among us: having run through its first world, I can assure you that there's essentially no such thing as a safe landing in any of Meat Boy's levels until you've reached the end.
Ten for 2010: the 10 most-anticipated games coming in the new year Boing Boing 2009
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“A duel with a white-livered traitor like yerself?”
Much Ado About Marriage Karen Hawkins 2010
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“A duel with a white-livered traitor like yerself?”
Much Ado About Marriage Karen Hawkins 2010
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“A duel with a white-livered traitor like yerself?”
Much Ado About Marriage Karen Hawkins 2010
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The manner in which Judas grew more white-livered over his victuals, and languished, with his head on one side, as if he had no appetite, defies all description.
Pictures from Italy 2007
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The exact particulars of the similarity never came to light, but apparently the lady had, in a fit of high-minded inadvertence, had gone through the ceremony of marriage with, one quotes the unpublished discourse of Mr. Butteridge — “a white-livered skunk,” and this zoological aberration did in some legal and vexatious manner mar her social happines.
The War in the Air Herbert George 2006
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“Let the white-livered cowards have their way,” the old sailor said, contemptuously.
Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004
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“De Hamal is an unutterable puppy, besides being a very white-livered hero.”
Villette 2003
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By this worthy frock of mine, quoth Friar John, thou hast a mind to slip thy neck out of the collar and absent thyself from the fight, thou white-livered son of a dunghill!
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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By this worthy frock of mine, quoth Friar John, thou hast a mind to slip thy neck out of the collar and absent thyself from the fight, thou white-livered son of a dunghill!
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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