Word.ws English Dictionary

livery

UK/ˈlɪv(ə)ɹi/

livery noun: any distinctive identifying uniform worn by a group, such as the uniform worn by chauffeurs and male servants.

livery: any distinctive identifying uniform worn by a group, such as the uniform worn by chauffeurs and...
Image: CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

livery (countable and uncountable, plural liveries)

  1. Any distinctive identifying uniform worn by a group, such as the uniform worn by chauffeurs and male servants.
    • And while the moralist, who is holding forth on the cover ( an accurate portrait of your humble servant), professes to wear neither gown nor bands, but only the very same long-eared livery in which his congregation is arrayed: yet, look you, one is bound to speak the truth as far as one knows it...1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
    • Going into the hall he saw a handsome groom, in a braided livery and a bear fur cape, holding a white fur cloak.1901 [1878], chapter 19, in Constance Garnett, transl., Anna Karenina, translation of Анна Каренина (Anna Karenina) by Leo Tolstoy, part 4
  2. The whole body of liverymen, members of livery companies.
  3. The paint scheme of a vehicle or fleet of vehicles.
    • The airline's new livery received a mixed reaction from the press.
    • The glass fibre body has the advantage of lightness and obviates the need for painting as the material is self-coloured in the standard B.R. maroon livery.1961 October, “Car carriage by rail - at home and abroad: 1. New B.R. "covered wagons"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 594
  4. (US) A taxicab or limousine.
  5. The delivery of property from one owner to the next.
  6. The writ by which property is obtained.
  7. (historical) The rental of horses or carriages; the rental of canoes; the care and/or boarding of horses for money.
    • […] Pegasus does not stand at livery even at the largest establishment in Moorfields.1876, James Russell Lowell, “Keats”, in Among My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 305
  8. (historical) A stable that keeps horses or carriages for rental.
  9. An allowance of food; a ration, as given out to a family, to servants, to horses, etc.
    • The emperor's officers every night went through the town from house to house whereat any English gentleman did repast or lodge, and served their liveries for all night: first, the officers brought into the house a cast of fine manchet [white bread], and of silver two great post, and white wine, and...1825, George Cavendish, edited by Samuel Weller Singer, Life of Cardinal Wolsey
  10. Release from wardship; deliverance.
    • It concerned them first to sue out their livery from the unjust wardship of his encroaching prerogative.1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC
  11. A low grade of wool.
  12. Outward markings, fittings or appearance
    • When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,
      dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
      Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
      Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held:1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 2”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

Verb

livery (third-person singular simple present liveries, present participle liverying, simple past and past participle liveried)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To clothe.
    • He liveried his servants in the most modest of clothing.

Adjective

livery (comparative more livery, superlative most livery)

  1. Like liver.
    • We are happy for the chopped mushrooms within the warm goose liver paté, for the coarse, highly seasoned wedge has a robust livery flavour the 'shrooms manage to ease.2004, Anne DesBrisay, Capital Dining: Anne DesBrisay's Guide to Ottawa Restaurants, ECW Press, →ISBN, page 19
    • A second test was similar, but we brought the internal temperature up to 130 degrees; the texture was chewy, the meat tasted livery, and had not melted.2010, Christopher Kimball, Fannie's Last Supper: Re-creating One Amazing Meal from Fannie Farmer's 1896 Cookbook, Hachette UK, →ISBN
  2. Queasy, liverish.
    • He woke feeling livery, and aware that he had overslept the morning.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 204
    • The biliousness and livery feeling will disappear and the feeling of joy and happiness will be the reward.2011, Dr Dorothy Shepherd, Homoeopathy For The First Aider, Random House, →ISBN, page 58

livery meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

livery in Tamil

அடையாள உடை, பணித் தனியாடை, ஈரல் போன்ற திட்பமுள்ள

livery in Urdu

وردی

livery in Bengali

ভৃত্য, কর্মচারীর বিশেষ পোশাক, উর্দি, ঘোড়া রাখার আস্তাবল

livery in Malayalam

regalia, uniform, costume
ഭൃത്യവേഷം, കുലീനരുടെ ഭൃത്യവർഗ്ഗവേഷം, വില്ല, പദവിവസ്ത്രം, നിർദ്ദിഷ്ടവേഷം, പരിചാരകന്മാരുടെ നിർദ്ദിഷ്ടവേഷം
More languagesFewer languages
livery in Kannada
ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ಪೋಷಾಕು, ಗುರುತಿಸುವ ಉಡುಪು, ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ಸಮವಸ್ತ್ರ, ತೊತ್ತುಡುಪು
livery in Punjabi
ਲਿਵਰੀ
livery in Indonesian
seragam kendaraan

Examples of livery in a sentence

  • “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • By wearing livery, the brewers publicly expressed guild association and solidarity.1996, Judith M. Bennett, Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600:
  • The 35-year-old must adore this ground as this was his sixth strike in total here: four of these were previously in Manchester City livery, the other in that of Wolfsburg.2021 April 29, Jamie Jackson, “Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six”, in The Guardian:
  • Sulfur-containing compounds (thiols, sulfides, thiazoles, sulfur-substituted furans) can interact with carbonyl compounds to produce a livery flavor.2010, Fidel Toldr, Handbook of Meat Processing, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 35:

All 33 example sentences with livery

Forms of livery

Noun
pluralliveries
alternative form (obsolete)liveray
alternative form (obsolete)liverie
Verb
third-person singular presentliveries
present participleliverying
past participleliveried
pastliveried
Adjective
comparativemore livery
superlativemost livery

Plural of livery: liveries

Origin of livery

From Middle English livery, liveree, from Anglo-Norman liveree, from Old French livree. Compare modern French livrée.

From Middle English *livery, from Old English lifriġ (“relating to the liver, livery”), equivalent to liver + -y.

Words formed from livery

Phrases with livery

Words that rhyme with livery

Questions about livery

What does livery mean?
Livery means any distinctive identifying uniform worn by a group, such as the uniform worn by chauffeurs and male servants.
What is livery in Tamil?
Livery in Tamil is அடையாள உடை, பணித் தனியாடை, ஈரல் போன்ற திட்பமுள்ள. See Livery meaning in Tamil.
How do you use livery in a sentence?
“I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble.
What part of speech is livery?
Livery can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce livery?
Livery is pronounced /ˈlɪv(ə)ɹi/ (UK).
What is the plural of livery?
The plural of livery is liveries.

Words near livery in the dictionary

  1. liverwings
  2. liverwort
  3. liverworts
  4. liverwurst
  5. liverwursts
  6. livery
  7. livery companies
  8. livery company
  9. livery stable
  10. livery stables
  11. livery yard

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: livery (page history and authors); livery (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); livery (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Livery (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); livery (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); livery (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); livery (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-us-livery.ogg.

Cite this entry: “livery.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/livery. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.