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What is "lily-livered"

Crossword clues for lily-livered

lily-livered
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
lily-livered
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Because no one hearing his name thinks this Government is run by a bunch of lily-livered limousine-liberals.
▪ Not a city for the lily-livered or faint-hearted.
▪ The Government are still lily-livered in that respect.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lily-livered

Lily-livered \Lil"y-liv`ered\ (l[i^]l"[y^]-l[i^]v`[~e]rd), a. White-livered; cowardly.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
lily-livered

"cowardly," 1605, in "Macbeth;" from lily (in its color sense of "pale, bloodless") + liver (n.1), which was a supposed seat of love and passion. A healthy liver is typically dark reddish-brown.

Wiktionary
lily-livered

a. (context idiomatic English) coward, lacking bravery.

WordNet
lily-livered

adj. easily frightened [syn: chicken, chickenhearted, white-livered, yellow, yellow-bellied]

Usage examples of "lily-livered".

Her habituation to the Rackham house and the tidy streets of Notting Hill has made her lily-livered: now her breath catches, her eyes water, from being forced to take in the overbearing stench of perfume and horse dung, freshly-baked cakes and old meat, burnt mutton-fat and chocolate, roast chestnuts and dog piss.