lily-livered

comparative more lily-livered · superlative most lily-livered

1. idiomaticCowardly, lacking courage.

   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, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 149, column 1

   3 more examples

   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, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], signature E, recto

   But as for that lily-livered sneak—that poor lyin' swindlin' cringin' cur of a Clavering—who stands in my shoes—stands in my shoes, hang him!

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Conversations”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC

   Ho! Then you do your best, Lillie. No one could call you lily-livered!

   2016, Pokémon Sun and Moon, Hapu to Lillie

   Synonyms: white-livered