lily-livered

adjective

lily-liv·​ered ˈli-lē-ˈli-vərd 

: lacking courage : cowardly

Did you know?

The basis of the word lily-livered lies in an old belief. Years ago, people thought that health and temperament were the products of a balance or imbalance of four bodily fluids, or humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. It was believed that a deficiency of yellow bile, or choler, the humor that governed anger, spirit, and courage, would leave a person's liver colorless or white. Someone with this deficiency, and so white-livered, would be spiritless and a coward. Lily-livered and white-livered have been used synonymously since the 17th century, but lily-livered is now the more common expression, probably because of its alliteration.

Synonyms

• chicken
• chicken-livered
• chickenhearted
• cowardly
• craven
• dastardly
• gutless
• milk-livered [archaic]
• poltroon
• pusillanimous
• recreant
• spineless
• unheroic
• yellow

Examples of lily-livered in a Sentence

the pacifist was mistakenly accused of being a lily-livered coward

Recent Examples on the Web

Contrary to the nationalist account, resistance has not generally been the result of America’s leaders being weak-kneed and lily-livered. —Ronald R. Krebs, Foreign Affairs, 29 May 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1605, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

lily-livered

adjective

lily-liv·​ered

ˌlil-ē-ˈliv-ərd

: cowardly sense 1

Word Origin

In the Middle Ages, most of what was thought about the body was based on the theory of humors. Humors were body fluids believed to determine a person's temperament. The humor that was supposed to control anger, spirit, and courage was bile, produced by the liver. A person who lacked courage was believed to have a white liver, because it had no yellow bile to color it. Thus, a cowardly person was called white-livered or, more poetically, lily-livered.