lily-livered
lily-livered adjective: cowardly, lacking courage.
Adjective
lily-livered (comparative more lily-livered, superlative most lily-livered)
- Cowardly, lacking courage.
- Stew[ard],^([sic]) What doſt thou know me for? / Kent. […] [A] lilly lyuer'd action taking knaue, […] one that would'ſt bee a baud in way of good ſeruice, and art nothing but the compoſition of a knaue, begger, coward, pander, and the ſonne and heire of a mungrell bitch, […]c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […]...
- Go pricke thy face, and ouer-red thy feare / Thou Lilly-liuer'd Boy.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Synonyms:
- white-livered
lily-livered meaning in Bengali
Synonyms of lily-livered
Forms of lily-livered
| comparative | more lily-livered |
|---|---|
| superlative | most lily-livered |
Origin of lily-livered
The first known uses of lily-livered are in William Shakespeare’s works written c. 1603–1606; see quotations below. From the medieval belief that the liver was the seat of courage, and the pale color of the lily flower. A person who had no blood in their liver would have no courage and would thus be a coward. Equivalent to lily + livered.
Words formed from lily-livered
Questions about lily-livered
- What does lily-livered mean?
- Lily-livered means cowardly, lacking courage.
- What is lily-livered in Bengali?
- Lily-livered in Bengali is ভীরু. See Lily-livered meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is lily-livered?
- Lily-livered is an adjective.
Words near lily-livered in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lily-livered (page history and authors); lily-livered (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-lily-livered.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lily-livered.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lily-livered. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.