liver

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See also: Liver

English

Sheep's liver

Etymology 1

From Middle English liver, from Old English lifer, from Proto-Germanic *librō. Cognate with Dutch lever, German Leber, (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Danish, (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Norwegian and Swedish lever (the last three from Old Norse lifr). Related to live.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /lɪvə(ɹ)/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪvə(ɹ)

Noun

liver (countable and uncountable, plural livers)

  1. (anatomy) A 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. (countable, uncountable) This organ, as taken from animals used as food.
    I'd like some goose liver pate.
    You could fry up some chicken livers for a tasty treat. — Nah, I don't like chicken liver.
    • 1993, Philippa Gregory, Fallen Skies, →ISBN, page 222:
      "I should think you've rocked the boat enough already by refusing to eat liver."
  3. A dark brown colour, tinted with red and gray, like the colour of liver.
    liver:  
Usage notes
  • The noun is often used attributively to modify other words. Used in this way, it frequently means "concerning the liver", "intended for the liver" or "made of liver" .
Derived terms
Translations
organ of the body

Adjective

liver (not comparable)

  1. Of the colour of liver (dark brown, tinted with red and gray).
    • 2006, Rawdon Briggs Lee, A History and Description of the Modern Dogs of Great Britain & Ireland, →ISBN, page 298:
      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.
Translations

See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English livere, equivalent to live +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

Noun

liver (plural livers)

  1. Someone who lives (usually in a specified way).
    • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
    • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 7:
      a wicked liver may be reclaimed, and prove an honest man […].
    • (Can we date this quote by Prior and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Try if life be worth the liver's care.
    • 2014, Walter Raubicheck, Anya Morlan, Christianity and the Detective Story, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (→ISBN)
      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.
Quotations
Translations

Etymology 3

live (adjective) +‎ -(e)r.

Pronunciation

Adjective

liver

  1. comparative form of live: more live
    Seeing things on a big screen somehow makes them seem liver.

Further reading

Anagrams

Breton

Noun

liver m

  1. painter

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

liver

  1. (non-standard since 1917) (deprecated template usage) present of liva
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