livers and lights
livers and lights noun: offal; The internal organs of an animal, especially when used as food.
Noun
livers and lights pl (plural only)
- Offal; The internal organs of an animal, especially when used as food.
- Helpless, the riders are borne into the Marsh, or a freshwater lake or even, so it is said in Grïmnørsland, the salt sea. After the waters close over their heads they are not seen again, although sometimes their livers and lights are found cast up on the shore.2007, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Iron Tree
- The livers and lights of sheep, cattle, &c. were well boiled, chopped fine, seasoned with pepper and salt, and filled into the small intestines of those animals; and a piece from seven to nine inches long, sold to us for sixpence, York currency;2009, Andrew Sherburne, Memoirs of Andrew Sherburne, page 113
- Innards; entrails.
- ... for I forgot he was old King Lear and a drownded A-rab all in one, and it most scared the livers and lights out of me.1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- It's all as true as Gospel ; and I can whip the livers and lights out of any crowd that disputes it.1898, “Uncle Jake's Story: The South Bend Bear Hunt”, in The Cyclopædia of Wit and Humor, page 30
Origin of livers and lights
From the most prominent organs, the liver and the lights (lungs); probably influenced by alliteration.
Questions about livers and lights
- What does livers and lights mean?
- Livers and lights means offal; The internal organs of an animal, especially when used as food.
- What part of speech is livers and lights?
- Livers and lights is a noun.
Words near livers and lights in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: livers and lights (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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