Liver

Pronunciation

• IPA: /lɪvÉ™(r)/
• Rhymes: -ɪvÉ™(r)

Old English lifer, from Proto-Germanic *librō. Cognate with Dutch lever, German Leber, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish lever (the last three from Old Norse lifr).

Full definition of liver

Noun

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-13: 978-1-4165-9314-0, 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.

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

• chopped liver
• cod liver oil

Adjective

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 0-543-96651-8, 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.

Derived terms

Related terms

From live + -er.

Noun

1. Someone who lives (usually in a specified way).
• 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.31: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.
• 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.3.7:a wicked liver may be reclaimed, and prove an honest man ...
• PriorTry if life be worth the liver's care.

live (adjective) + -(e)r.

Adjective

1. liver

   (comparative of live)
   Seeing things on big screen somehow makes it seem liver.

Anagrams

• livre, rivel, viler