white-livered

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white-liv·ered

(wīt′lĭv′ərd, hwīt′-)

adj.

Cowardly.

[From the notion that a deficiency of bile caused a pale liver and lack of vigor or courage.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

white-livered

adj

1. lacking in spirit or courage

2. pallid and unhealthy in appearance

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Adj.

white-livered - easily frightened

chicken, chickenhearted, lily-livered, yellow-bellied, yellow

colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech

cowardly, fearful - lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted; "cowardly dogs, ye will not aid me then"- P.B.Shelley

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Five of 'em strung up in a row, and none left to play booty, or turn white-livered!'

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'Then you're a white-livered fool, and I wash my hands of you,' grumbled the tempter, as he swung himself round and departed.

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Butteridge--"a white-livered skunk," and this zoological aberration did in some legal and vexatious manner mar her social happines.