Obs. exc. dial. [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.

1

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 15879 (Cott.). Þe fals felun Iudas … liuerd his maister vp. Ibid., 20391. I liuerd me of mi sarmon. Ibid. (a. 1300–1400), 14418 (Gött.). God … liurd þaim of mekil wa.

2

13[?].  S. Gregory (Vernon MS.), 72. Liuere me, lord, out of þis pyne.

3

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 3152. [Þai] egirly cries On Alexander eftir help & he ham all liuers [Dubl. delyuerys].

4

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., xxiv. 265. I am leuerd a lap is lyke to no lede.

5

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, i. 33. Yf he haue doon soo I shall neuer leuer hym the value of a peny.

6

c. 1500.  Melusine, xxxvi. 275. That they be prest redy to lyuere you batayll.

7

1596.  Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 623/2. The which woord [livery] … is derived of livering or delivering foorth theyr nightlye foode.

8

c. 1626.  Bp. Mountagu, in Cosin’s Corr. (Surtees), I. 99. Hath Dr. Wrende livered my letter and effected it?

9

1672.  Sc. Acts Chas. II. (1814), VIII. 61/1. If any of that victuall shall happin to be livered within their bounds.

10

1701.  in J. Bulloch, Pynours (1887), 74. Item if any goods shall be livered at the shoar below the Estler work.

11

a. 1765.  Northumberland betrayd by Douglas, ix. in Child, Ballads, III. 412/1. For all the gold that’s in Loug Leuen, William wold not liuor mee.

12

1855.  Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Livier, to deliver. ‘Is the ship livvered,’ unloaded.

13

1883.  Almondb. & Huddersf. Gloss., Liver, to deliver; so posit for deposit.

14

1887.  J. Bulloch, Pynours, 41. Their industrious wives and sisters were perhaps busily loading or livering some vessel in the ‘herborie.’

15