liver

plural livers

1. countableuncountableanatomyA large organ in the body that stores and metabolizes nutrients, destroys toxins and produces bile. It is responsible for thousands of biochemical reactions.

   Steve Jobs is a famous liver transplant recipient.

2. countableuncountableThis organ, as taken from animals used as food.

   I'd like some goose liver pate.

   2 more examples

   You could fry up some chicken livers for a tasty treat. — Nah, I don't like chicken liver.

   "I should think you've rocked the boat enough already by refusing to eat liver."

   1993, Philippa Gregory, Fallen Skies, →ISBN, page 222

3. countableuncountableA dark brown colour, tinted with red and gray, like the colour of liver.
4. countableobsoleteuncountablechemistryAny of various chemical compounds—particularly sulfides—thought to resemble livers in color.

   He gave his horse some liver of antimony.

1. not comparableOf the colour of liver (dark brown, tinted with red and gray).

   His friend Rothwell, who had the use of the best Laveracks for breeding purposes, wrote him that one of his puppies was liver and white.

   2006, Rawdon Briggs Lee, A History and Description of the Modern Dogs of Great Britain & Ireland, →ISBN, page 298

plural livers

1. uncommonSomeone who lives (usually in a specified way).

   Try if life be worth the liver's care.

   1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)

   4 more examples

   Ephori of Sparta, hearing a dissolute liver propose a very beneficial advise unto the people, commaunded him to hold his peace, and desired an honest man to assume the invention of it unto himselfe and to propound it.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 31, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   a wicked liver may be reclaimed, and prove an honest man[…].

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 7

   […] a stately speech; / Such as grave Livers do in Scotland use, / Religious men, who give to God and Man their dues.

   1815 [1802], William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence

   A great lover of the faith, a great defender of the faith, a great lover of life, great liver of life, great defender of life. And yet he plotted and planned over fifty murders, and carried each of one them out—if only on paper, and if only for our pleasure.

   2014, Walter Raubicheck, Anya Morlan, Christianity and the Detective Story, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN

   1. uncommonSomeone who is alive: one of the living.

      Thou king of heaven, which […] Dost see the secret of each livers heart.

      1599, Greene, Alphonsus, Wks. (Rtldg.), page 234

      1 more example

      When as the wandring Scots and Picthts King Marius had subdude, He gave the Liuers dwellings.

      1592, Alb. Eng., Warner, VIII, xliii (1612), 206

   2. uncommonSomeone who lives in a particular place; an inhabitant, a dweller.

      One, John Powle, a Liver on Sasquehanna River.

      1747, Col. Rec. Pennsylv., V, 87

      2 more examples

      They must instantly have been detected by the present Livers that were upon the place.

      1677, Cary, Chronol., II, ii, III, xiv, 252

      There is no liver in the country so practical.

      1863, D. G. Mitchell, Sev. Stor., My Farm of Edgewood, section 289

1. comparativecomparative form of live: more live

   Seeing things on a big screen somehow makes them seem liver.

   1 more example

   […]manslaughter, liver than camcorder

   2001, Adam F featuring MOP, “Stand Clear”

comparative more Liver · superlative most Liver

1. rareFrom or pertaining to Liverpool.

   ‘Your accent has changed!’ ‘No, it hasn’t,’ I lied as I had found a cheap voice teacher for elocution lessons to remove my Liver accent. ‘Yes it has! You no longer sound like a female Sir Paul McCartney.’

   2008, Carmenica Diaz, Shame, →ISBN, page 16

   3 more examples

   He was fat, he was round and his car was in the pound. But we loved Liver bloke Jan Molby all the same. Now he's decided to tell us all about his crazy old days as the Lardy Lord of the Liverpool midfield and you can get your hands on this very funny tale for free if you win this competition.

   1999 October 7, Jonathan Yee, “warning long post”, in uk.rec.competitions (Usenet), message-ID <qD8L3.581$aK.85990@newsr2.u-net.net>

   To Jaye this seemed a strange coupling, Dirk being a fun-loving, hard-drinking and irresponsible Liver Lad, and Liz a serious, sober and very responsible History student who gave Jaye the impression of being Dirk's Mum rather than his lover.

   2012, Julian Corbell, Encounters with Strangers, →ISBN, page 19

   Recently we had recognized certain voices as we had given our routine passage, but now the voice was Northern Irish, replacing the lady from Liverpool. Our Liver girl had sounded quite sad when she advised us to let Belfast know when we arrived in Peel.

   2014, Shane Spall, The Princess Matilda Comes Home, →ISBN, page 152

   Synonyms: Scouse, Liverpudlian