adj. phr. (colloquial).—Cowardly, mean. [An old notion was that cowards had bloodless livers.]
1548. LATIMER, Sermons and Remains, s.v.
1597. SHAKESPEARE, Richard III., iv. 4. WHITE-LIVER’D runagate, what doth he there? Ibid. (1598), Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. How many cowards … who, inward search’d, have LIVERS WHITE as milk?
1600. JONSON, Cynthia’s Revels, iv. 1. When they come in swaggering company, and will pocket up anything, may they not properly be said to be WHITE-LIVERED?
1625. FLETCHER, The Elder Brother, iv. 3. As I live, they stay not here, WHITE-LIVERED wretches!
