| 释义 |
▪ I. liver, n.1|ˈlɪvə(r)|
Forms: 1 lifer, 3–4 livre, 3–5 livere, lyvre, 4 lyvour, 4–5 lyvere, 4–6 lyver, 5 levir, -yr, lyffere, lyvir, -yr, lywer, 5–6 lever, 6 Sc. liffyr, luffer, 7 livour, 1, 4– liver.
[OE. lifer fem. = MDu. lēver, lēvere (Du. lever), OHG. libara, lebara, lebera, lepera (MHG. leber, lebere, G. leber), ON. lifr (Sw. lefver, Da. lever):—OTeut. *liƀrâ, ? cogn. w. Armenian leard.
Some scholars regard the Teut. word as cogn. w. the Aryan *yē̆qr̥t (Skr. yakrt, Gr. ἧπαρ, L. jecur), the root being supposed to be *liq- (:*lyē̆q-); but the supposition involves serious difficulties.]
1. a. A large glandular organ in vertebrate animals, serving chiefly to secrete bile and to purify the venous blood. Also in generalized sense, the flesh of a liver or livers, e.g. used as food.
In the warm-blooded animals the liver is usually of a dark reddish-brown colour. In man it is situated below the diaphragm, and is divided by fissures into five lobes.
c888K. ælfred Boeth. xxxv. §6 [7] And se Uultor sceolde forlætan þæt he ne slat þa lifre Tyties [MSS. Sticces, Ticcies] ðæs cyninges. a900Kentish Glosses in Wr.-Wülcker 61/33 Iecor eius, his lifere. c1205Lay. 6499 Þat deor..for-bat him þa breste ban and þa senuwen þat þa lihte and þa liuere feollen on eorðen. c1290S.E. Leg. I. 320/738 In þe Neþemeste bolle þat þe liuere deoth of springue, Þare comez o-manere soule. 13..K. Alis. 2156 Alisaundre hutte him, certe, Thorugh livre, and longe, and heorte. c1386Chaucer Sompn. T. 131 Have I nat of a capon but the livere. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 27 Þilke chylum spredeþ þorwe al þe lyffere by mene of veynes Capillares. c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 41 Take lyver of porke and kerve hit smalle. c1460Towneley Myst. iii. 399 Me thynk my hert ryfis both levyr and long, To se sich stryfis wedmen emong. 1530Lyndesay Test. Papyngo 1124 Ȝe thre my trypes sall haue, for ȝour trauell, With luffer and lowng. 1598Epulario H iv b, To make a Tart of the liuer of fishes. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. iii. 19 They are polluted offrings, more abhord Then spotted Liuers in the sacrifice. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 346 Spirits that live throughout Vital in every part, not as frail man In Entrailes, Heart or Head, Liver or Reines. 1717Prior Alma i. 440 The liver..parts and strains the vital juices. 1771Goldsm. Haunch of Venison 81 A fry'd liver and bacon. 1803Med. Jrnl. X. 1 Abscess of the Liver. 1818Byron Beppo xcii, I never Saw a man grown so yellow! How's your liver? 1872Huxley Physiol. v. 117 The liver is the largest glandular organ in the body, ordinarily weighing about 50, or 60 ounces.
b. Applied to analogous glandular organs or tissues in invertebrates.
1841–71T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 588 The liver is proportionally of very large size in the Mollusca we are now describing. 1861J. R. Greene Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent. 106 Within the roof of the latter [polypite]..is lodged a peculiar brownish mass, the so-called liver.
c. Palmistry. line of the liver: the line which stretches from the wrist (near the ‘line of life’) to the base of the little finger.
1653R. Sanders Physiogn. xv. 50 Of the Line of the Liver, or the Hepatique. Ibid., When this line of the Liver is winding up and down, and waving, it signifies Theft, evill Conscience.
2. fig. and allusive.
a. Formerly often mentioned fig. with allusion to its importance as a vital organ of the body (coupled with brain and heart); also with allusion to the ancient notion that it was the seat of love and of violent passion generally. (Now only arch.)
b. A white liver is spoken of as characterizing a coward: cf. white-livered.
1390Gower Conf. III. 100 The livere makth him forto love. 1593Shakes. Lucr. 47 To quench the coale which in his liuer glowes. 1596― Merch. V. iii. ii. 86 How manie cowards..Who inward searcht, haue lyuers white as milke. 1599― Much Ado iv. i. 233. 1601 ― Twel. N. i. i. 37. 1602 Narcissus (1893) 703 That greives my liver most. 1606Sir G. Goosecappe i. iv. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 24 Because I am all liver, and turn'd lover. Ibid. ii. i. 37 Their livers were too hot,.. and for temper sake they must needs have a cooling carde plaid upon them. 1611Shakes. Cymb. v. v. 15 To you (the Liuer, Heart, and Braine of Britaine) By whom (I grant) she liues. 1612Chapman Widow's Tears v. Dram. Wks. 1873 III. 66 It will be such a cooler To my Venerean Gentleman's hot liuer. 1623Webster Duchess of Malfi ii. iii. E 2 b, By him I'll send A Letter, that shall make her brothers Galls Ore-flowe their Liuours. 1651N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. xvi. (1739) 84 The Mint is the very Liver of the Nation, and was wont to be the chief Care of the Parliament. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 404 When Love's unerring Dart Transfixt his Liver, and inflam'd his Heart. a1859Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxv. (1861) V. 304 [an. 1701] In every market place..papers about the brazen forehead..and the white liver of Jack Howe, the French King's buffoon, flew about. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 734 He was a great hunter, and his liver grew hot in him for the bush.
†c. Disposition, temperament, ‘kidney’. rare.
1800Spirit Public Jrnls. (1801) IV. 182 John Bull will solemnly and dully sit down to his pipe and bowl with a fellow of the same serious liver.
3. A diseased or disordered condition of the liver; liver-complaint. Also, with qualification specifying the disease, as bronze liver, cirrhotic liver, hobnailed liver.
1805J. Leyden in Scott's Prose Wks. IV. Biographies II. (1870) 179, I had a most terrible attack of the liver. 1826Jekyll Corr. w. Lady Stanley (1894) 165 Lord Wycombe was dying of liver and dropsy. 1839Penny Cycl. XIV. 60/2 The ‘fatty liver’ is a frequent attendant on pulmonary phthisis. 1871Sir T. Watson Princ. & Pract. Physic (ed. 5) II. 670 What used to be called the ‘nutmeggy’ liver, is simply the result of congestion of its blood-vessels. 1884A. Forbes Chinese Gordon iii. 148 He suffered from ague for the first time since boyhood, and later came liver. 1898P. Manson Trop. Diseases xxvi. 390 Dyspeptic troubles..usually attributed to ‘liver’.
4. In old chemical terminology applied (tr. L. hepar) to certain liver-coloured substances, e.g. metallic sulphides, and compounds of a metal or of sulphur with an ‘alkali’.
1694Salmon Bate's Dispens. i. (1699) 436/1 Hepar Sulphuris, Liver of Sulphur. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Liver of Antimony (among Chymists), Antimony open'd by Salt-peter and Fire, so as to make it half Glas, and give it a Liver-colour. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) X. 104/2 Liver of Arsenic, is a combination of white arsenic with liquid fixed vegetable alkali, or by the humid way. 1799W. Tooke View Russian Emp. I. 283 Liver-of-sulphate springs; i.e. springs which are impregnated with sulphurate. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 174 You fuse together equal parts of sulphur and alkali,..and the result will be a solid mass of a reddish brown colour,..which has a considerable resemblance to the liver of certain animals. It is for this reason that sulphurets have been called Livers. 1876Daily Tel. 27 July 3/5 (E.D.D.) Do you ever use black antimony, or liver of antimony, with any of the horses?
5. Agric. ‘Livery’ soil.
1803Annals Agric. XXXIX. 79 Upon these strong soils, the point..most necessary to attend to is that of avoiding all spring ploughing, which loses a friable surface, and turns up liver.
6. as adj. Liver-coloured.
1868Wood Homes without H. xi. 203 That peculiar brown which is called ‘liver’ by bird-fanciers. 1892Daily News 31 May 6/1 General D.'s familiar browns [horses] and the chestnuts liver and pale.
7. attrib. and Comb., as liver abscess, liver ache, liver attack, liver cell, liver chill, liver colour, liver disease, liver disorder, liver distome, liver extract, liver function, liver ill, liver oil, liver paste, liver pâté, liver pudding, liver pus, liver trouble; liver-coloured, liver-helping, liver hued, liver rotten, liver-shaped adjs.; liver-brown a., of the brown colour of the liver, dark brownish red; liver-complaining a., ? complaining of liver disease; liver-complaint, disease of the liver; liver-faced a., ‘mean and cowardly’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 1867); liver-fluke, a trematoid worm (Fasicola hepatica) infesting the liver; † liver-grown a., suffering from enlargement of the liver; also, adherent as an enlarged liver (in quot. fig.); liver-hearted a., cowardly; hence liver-heartedness; † liver-lap, a lobe of the liver; † liver-lask (see quot.); liver-leaf U.S., = liverwort 2; liver-line, ‘line of the liver’ (1 c); liver money (see quots.); liver-opal, an obsolete synonym of mexilite (Chester Names Min. 1896); liver-ore, an early name for hepatic cinnabar (ibid.); liver pad, a pad or plaster to be applied about the region of the liver; † liver-padding, ? = liver-pad; liver-pill, a pill intended to cure disease of the liver; liver-pyrites, hepatic pyrites (Cent. Dict. 1890); liver rot, disease of the liver caused by the liver-fluke; also, a type of anæmia in sheep, cattle, and, occasionally, other animals, caused by the liver fluke; liver salt, a powder with purgative properties which is intended to be taken, in solution, for the relief of dyspepsia or a bad ‘liver’; usu. short for the proprietary name Andrews Liver Salt and used in pl.; liver sausage [tr. G. leberwurst], a soft sausage filled with cooked liver, or a mixture of liver and pork, with various seasonings; cf. liverwurst; † liver-sea, an imaginary sea in which the water is ‘livered’ or thick, so as to impede navigation (cf. G. lebermeer); liver-shark, the basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus (Webster 1890); † liver-shot, -sick adjs., diseased in the liver; liver-spot, ‘a popular name for Chloasma, or macular pigmentation of the skin; because it was supposed to depend on some disorder of the liver’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); also, one of the small brown spots characteristic of this condition; liver-spotted a., having liver-coloured spots or liver-spots. liver-starch = glycogen (Syd. Soc. Lex.); liver-stone = hepatite; liver-sugar, the sugar derived from glycogen (Syd. Soc. Lex.); † liver-vein, the basilic vein; also allusively, ‘the style and manner of men in love’ (Schmidt); liver-weed, Hepatica triloba (Syd. Soc. Lex.); cf. liver-leaf; liver-wing, the right wing of a fowl, etc. which, when dressed for cooking, has the liver tucked under it; hence jocularly, the right arm.
1898P. Manson Trop. Diseases xxiii. 363, I have many times seen amœbic *liver abscess cases recover completely.
Ibid. ii. 64 The pain in the loins and the *liver-ache continue.
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 900 There had been undoubted dyspepsia or a ‘*liver attack’ before the onset of the symptoms.
1794Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 30 *Liver brown—greyish brown. 1849D. Campbell Inorg. Chem. 107 When protosulphide is fused with rather more than its weight of sulphur a liver brown mass is obtained.
1873T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 273 Atrophy of the *liver-cells.
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 46 The vague condition called ‘*liver-chill’ is regarded by some authors as a form of active congestion of the liver.
1686Lond. Gaz. No. 2114/4 A..Spaniel Bitch,..mark'd all over her body..with specks of *liver-colour. a1728Woodward Nat. Hist. Fossils i. (1729) I. 232 A Piece of Iron-Ore, of a dark Liver Colour.
1663Boyle Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos. ii. ii. 166 A clotted and almost *liver-coloured masse. 1810Sporting Mag. XXXV. 261 His..liver-coloured dog Don.
1787Generous Attachment II. 145 A love writing, love sick, *liver complaining girl.
1809J. Curry (title) Examination of the prejudices against mercury in *liver complaints.
1867J. Hogg Microsc. ii. iii. 563 The excitation of the *liver disease in sheep.
1900J. Hutchinson Arch. Surg. XI. No. 41. 2 Foremost amongst the most definite indications of *liver disorder we have the yellow condition of the skin known as Jaundice.
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 1026 By comparing the figures of these *liver distomes.
1910Martindale & Westcott Extra Pharmacopœia (ed. 14) 820 Early cases of cirrhosis have been well treated with glycerinated *liver extract. 1959Brit. Med. Jrnl. 28 Mar. 833/2 Parenteral liver extracts still enjoy some popularity.
179.Nemnich Polyglotten-Lex., *Liver fluke. Fasciola hepatica. 1836–9Todd Cycl. Anat. II. 121/1 The liver-fluke is extremely rare.
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 51 Various general symptoms referable..to disturbances of gastro-intestinal and *liver functions.
1645Milton Tetrach. Wks. 1851 IV. 159 Unlesse it be the lowest lees of a canonicall infection *liver-grown to their sides. 1658Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 344, I suffered him to be opened, when they found that he was what is vulgarly called liver-grown. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. (1812) I. 321 She was only liver-grown and would in a few months be as small in the waist as ever.
1571Golding Calvin on Ps. xiii. 1 He complayneth not of the miserie of a fewe dayes, as the tender and *liver-harted sort [L. pusillanimes] are wont to doe. 1897Blackmore Dariel liii. 468 If thou art too liver-hearted to avenge thy father's wrongs.
1897O. Schreiner Trooper P. Halket i. 79 ‘It's not *liver-heartedness’, said Peter.
1611Cotgr., Hepatique,..*Liuer-helping; comforting a whole, or curing a diseased, liuer.
1678Lond. Gaz. No. 1327/4 White body, with some *liver-hued spots.
1513Douglas æneis viii. Prol. 139 Sum langis for the *liffyr ill to lik of ane quart.
a1000Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 238/30 Fibra, i. uena, iecoris intestina, *lifer⁓læppa. 1596C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 25 Her..turtle-doves,..Whose liver-laps do swell with full-vain'd loves. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 582 The Liver laps of a Wolf.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 48/1 The waterye Bloodye flixe is called Fluxus Hepaticus, the *Liver laske.
1851S. Judd Margaret ii. i. (1871) 162 *Liver-leaves with cups full of snow-capped threads.
1653R. Sanders Physiogn. 102 The *Liver line at a distance, and not touching the Vital line.
1935R. M. Trawler 132 Firstly, there is the ‘*liver-money’. The livers of all fish caught..are taken aft and tried down for the oil they produce... The proceeds of sale are divided among the crew. 1962J. Tunstall Fishermen ii. 55 Liver money, received for the amount of cod and haddock livers landed.
1875H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 407 When a mineral acid..is added to cod-liver oil, the well-known biliary play of colors occurs;..it shows that it is a *liver oil.
1799G. Smith Laboratory I. 201 The miners find sometimes a matter in the mines they call *liver-ore.
1879G. W. Peck Peck's Fun 38 A boarder at a Leadville hotel investigated his beef-steak and found that it was a fried *liver pad. 1889Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 72 Used as a liver pad.
14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 580/16 Epaticum, a *lyverpaddyng.
c1938Fortnum & Mason Price List 51/1 Potted meats..*Liver Paste—per tin 1/-. 1961M. Spark Prime of Miss Jean Brodie iv. 121 Some sandwiches of liver paste. 1964S. Bellow Herzog (1965) 70 Cheese, liver paste, crackers.
1935E. Craig Family Cookery 50 Calf's *liver pâté... Put the liver, uncooked bacon and ham twice or three times through a mincer. 1951E. David French Country Cooking 222 Liver pâté. The French Amieux brands are always reliable. 1964‘J. Melville’ Murderers' Houses iv. 75 Velia was making a liver pâté for Sunday supper.
1889J. K. Jerome Three Men in Boat 2, I had just been reading a patent *liver-pill circular.
1716C. Ludwig Teutsch-Englisches Lexicon, Leberwurst, a haggass or haggess, a *liver-pudding, a pudding made of liver and lights or lungs. 1723J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. sig. S2v To make Liver Puddings. Boil a Hog's Liver..; take an equal Quantity of grated Bread, two Pound of Beef-suet. 1887Boston Jrnl. (Mass.) 31 Dec. 2/4 A liver-pudding completed this typical Georgia repast.
1898P. Manson Trop. Diseases xxiii. 361 The naked-eye appearance of *liver-pus.
1837Youatt Sheep xi. 452 The river overflows..The foundation may be laid for foot-rot..but the *liver-rot is out of the question. 1937A. Fraser Sheep Farming xvi. 144 Liver-rot has at one time or another caused tremendous losses among sheep. 1972Country Life 2 Mar. 524/2 In the early 19th century men were still prepared to argue that liver-rot was due to poisonous dew.
1820Coleridge Lett. (1895) 707 What avails it..to a man in the last stage of ulcerated lungs, that his neighbour is *liver-rotten as well as consumptive?
1896Trade Marks Jrnl. 10 June 517 Andrews *Liver Salt..purifies & strengthens the whole system... A medicinal preparation for human use. The firm trading as Andrews & Co.,..Newcastle-on-Tyne; manufacturers. 1938L. MacNeice I crossed Minch x. 140 De Valera's sham industries—putting liver salts into tins. 1951J. B. Priestley Festival at Farbridge iii. iii. 584 The High Street chemist who had sold him shaving soap and liver salts. 1969M. Russell Hunt to Kill ii. 116 ‘I'm fine. Bit of a gut-ache. Too much booze.’ ‘Get home, take liver-salts.’
1855Geo. Eliot in Fraser's Mag. June 706/1 He is enthusiastic about the delights of dining on blaukraut and leberwurst (blue cabbage and *liver sausage). 1868[see blood-sausage (blood n. 21)]. 1965House & Garden Jan. 60 Liver sausage ranges in seasoning from extremely bland to highly spiced and pungent. 1971Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 27 June 50/3 Liver sausages are found in every European country.
a1600Montgomerie Misc. Poems xlix. 11 The perillous gredy gulfe of Perse, And *levir sees that syndry shippis devoirs.
1942S. Spender Ruins & Visions iii. 51 A tree..rotted By a *liver-shaped fungus on the bank. 1954M. Rickert Painting in Brit.: Middle Ages viii. 197 The border..contains some motifs found earlier in East Anglian manuscripts, as the little round liver- and heart-shaped leaves.
1618Latham 2nd Bk. Falconry (1633) 7 She [a hawk] is seldome..subiect to be *liuer shot.
1578Lyte Dodoens iv. lviii. 520 The rootes..are good for such as be *liver sicke. 1597Bp. Hall Sat. ii. vii. 45 Demon my friend once liuer-sicke of loue.
1883G. Harley Treat. Dis. Liver xxv. 1061 Among a few practitioners of the old school one hears a good deal about the diagnostic value of what are called *liver-spots. 1964‘E. McBain’ Axe vi. 101 He wore a dark black suit and he kept his hands, brown with liver spots, tented in front of his face. 1971Physics Bull. July 410/3 Seborrheic keratosis, commonly called liver spot—a blemish occurring frequently in the middle aged and aged. 1973N. Graham Murder in Dark Room iv. 24 He had a thin, yellow face dotted with liver spots.
1922R. Leighton Compl. Bk. Dog vi. 86 Prince IV..a *liver-spotted specimen. 1971V. Canning Firecrest i. 7 Everything about him was contained, precise and impeccable..the fingernails of his liver-spotted hands immaculate. 1975D. Bagley Snow Tiger xxiv. 205 Critchell placidly continued to fill his pipe with liver-spotted hands.
1794Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 143 *Liverstone.
1861New Syd. Soc. Yr.-bk. for 1860, 88 That *liver sugar is..identical with the sugar of the grape.
1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 430 Signs of *liver-trouble precede..the intestinal disorder.
1528Paynel Salerne's Regim. (1535) 105 In Aprile and May, the *lyuer veyne must be lette bloudde. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 74 This is the liuer veine, which makes flesh a deity. 1660Culpepper Two Treat. (1672) 10 At what time Bleeding is good..In Summer, open still the Liver-vein.
a1845Hood United Fam. xviii, We all prefer the *liver-wing. 1855Browning De Gustibus ii, The king Was shot at, touched in the liver-wing. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. xix, Mr. Pumblechook helped me to the liver wing.
▪ II. liver, n.2|ˈlɪvə(r)|
Forms: see live v.
[f. live v. + -er1.]
1. One who lives or is alive; a living creature. Now rare. Also, an inhabitant, dweller (chiefly U.S.).
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 132 Lyueres to-forn vs. 1382Wyclif Gen. iii. 1 The edder was feller than ony lifers of the erthe. 1382― Isa. xxxviii. 11, I shal not see the Lord God in the lond of lyueres. c1400Apol. Loll. 8 A liuar in þis world. a1533Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) Ff iij b, She that ouercometh all lyuers, shall be vanquished of the alonely by death. 1592Warner Alb. Eng. viii. xliii. (1612) 206 When as the wandring Scots and Picthts King Marius had subdude, He gave the Liuers dwellings. 1599Greene Alphonsus Wks. (Rtldg.) 234 Thou king of heaven, which..Dost see the secret of each livers heart. 1677Cary Chronol. ii. ii. iii. xiv. 252 They must instantly have been Detected by the present Livers that were upon the Place. 1718Prior Power 47 Try if life be worth the liver's care. 1747in Col. Rec. Pennsylv. V. 87 One, John Powle, a Liver on Sasquehanna River. 1817Keats ‘I stood tiptoe’ 117 Dear delight Of this fair world and all its gentle livers. a1845Hood Stanzas to T. Woodgate i, Tom;—are you still within this land Of livers? 1863D. G. Mitchell Sev. Stor., My Farm of Edgewood 289 There is no liver in the country so practical.
b. Qualified by adjs. having advb. force: One who lives (in a specified way, for a long time, etc.).
c1375XI Pains of Hell 64 in O.E. Misc. 212 Cursid leuers with here cumpers. c1386Chaucer Man of Law's T. 926 So vertuous a lyuere..Ne saugh I neuere as she. 1433Rolls of Parlt. IV. 447/1 Untrewe lyvers, and poeple withoute conscience. 1476Paston Lett. III. 166 The lenger lyver of yow bothe. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. xii. 6 The damned ghosts doen often creep Backe to the world, bad livers to torment. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 429 The Turke, and the Irish-man, are the least industrious, and most sluggish liuers vnder the Sunne. a1635Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 63 As I have placed him last, so was he the last liver of all the Servants of her favour. 1712Swift Jrnl. to Stella 28 Apr., The Queen is well, but I fear will be no long liver. 1767T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. II. i. 18 A grave man and a good liver. 1836W. Irving Astoria III. 197 Though a loose liver among his guests, the governor was a strict disciplinarian among his men. 1896A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad l, The country for easy livers, The quietest under the sun.
c. [Cf. living vbl. n.] good liver: (a) one given to good living; (b) dial. a well-to-do person.
1602Carew Cornwall 68 b, The haruest dinners are held by euery wealthy man, or as wee terme it, euery good liuer betweene Michaelmas and Candlemas. 1883Cornh. Mag. Apr. 459 Or it is a group of good-livers round the table of a private house.
2. One who lives a life of pleasure. (Cf. F. viveur.)
1852R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 133 The sixth earl,..having been a ‘liver’, had run himself aground by his enormous outlay on this Italian structure.
3. dial. The ‘quick’ of the finger-nail. Also Comb. liver-sick, an agnail. (See E.D.D.)
▪ III. liver, n.3|ˈlaɪvə(r)|
Also 7 leaver, 7–9 lever.
[A back-formation from the name Liverpool.]
A name arbitrarily given to the bird figured in the arms of the city of Liverpool.
It was intended for the eagle of St. John the Evangelist, the patron saint of the corporation, but owing to the unskilful delineation there have been many guesses as to the identity of the bird represented. In some ornithological books the name is given to the Glossy Ibis.
1668in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 269 The Armes of this towne vizt the Leaver. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. xii. 266/2 He beareth Azure, the Head of a Lever couped proper: of some termed a Shovellers head: this fowl is..in Low Dutch Lepler, or Lepelaer, or Lefler; from the Germane termed Lofler, which we more finely pronounce Lever: Yet Mr. Ray in the translation of the Ornithology terms this Bird, a Spoon Bill. 1873Picton Memor. L'pool I. 18 Mr. Gough Nichols has..shown..that the so-called liver or cormorant was intended to represent the symbolic eagle of St. John the Evangelist.
▪ IV. † ˈliver, a. Obs.
Also 4–5 lyvir, 6 lyver.
[Aphetic f. deliver a.]
1. Delivered (of a child); = deliver a. 3. rare.
a1400–50Alexander 3746 And be scho lyuir of a lasse scho lengis in oure burȝe.
2. Free from restraint in motion; active, nimble; = deliver a. 2.
1530Palsgr. 317/2 Lyver quyke, deliure. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (1858) II. 51 Lycht lyuer men to cirkill thame about. c1650R. Hood, Beggar & 3 Squires 46 in Furnivall Percy Folio I. 17 Those that saw Robin Hood run, said he was a liver old man. 1664Flodden F. v. 50 With lusty Lads liver and light. 1686G. Stuart Joco-ser. Disc. 39 Again speaks out a Lyver lad A trusty Trojan.
▪ V. liver, v. Obs. exc. dial.|ˈlɪvə(r)|
[Partly a. F. livre-r (11th c. in Littré):—L. līberā-re to liberate; and partly aphetic f. deliver v.]
= deliver v.1 in various senses.
a1300Cursor M. 15879 (Cott.) Þe fals felun Iudas..liuerd his maister vp. Ibid. 20391, I liuerd me of mi sarmon. a1300–1400Ibid. 14418 (Gött.) God..liurd þaim of mekil wa. 13..S. Gregory (Vernon MS.) 72 Liuere me, lord, out of þis pyne. a1400–50Alexander 3152 [Þai] egirly cries On Alexander eftir help & he ham all liuers [Dubl. delyuerys]. c1460Towneley Myst. xxiv. 265, I am leuerd a lap is lyke to no lede. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon i. 33 Yf he haue doon soo I shall neuer leuer hym the value of a peny. c1500Melusine xxxvi. 275 That they be prest redy to lyuere you batayll. 1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 623/2 The which woord [livery]..is derived of livering or delivering foorth theyr nightlye foode. c1626Bp. R. Montagu in Cosin's Corr. (Surtees) i. 99 Hath Dr. Wrende livered my letter and effected it? 1672Sc. Acts Chas. II (1814) VIII. 61/1 If any of that victuall shall happin to be livered within their bounds. 1701in J. Bulloch Pynours (1887) 74 If any goods shall be livered at the shoar below the Estler work. a1765Northumberland betrayd by Douglas ix. in Child Ballads III. 412/1 For all the gold that's in Loug Leuen, William wold not liuor mee. 1855Robinson Whitby Gloss., Livver, to deliver. ‘Is the ship livvered,’ unloaded. 1883Almondb. & Huddersf. Gloss., Liver, to deliver; so posit for deposit. 1887J. Bulloch Pynours 41 Their industrious wives..were loading or livering some vessel in the ‘herborie’.
▪ VI. liver
obs. form of livery, livre. |