liver

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 colour:  

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.

See also

• detoxification
• fascioliasis
• gout
• jaundice
• Appendix:Colors
• foie gras
• heparin
• hepatic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɪvə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪvə(ɹ)

Noun

liver (plural livers)

1. Someone who lives (usually in a specified way).
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: […] Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
     , 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, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):
     , II.3.7:

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

   • Prior

     Try if life be worth the liver's care.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /laɪvə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -aɪvə(ɹ)

Adjective

liver

1. comparative form of live: more live

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