milk-livered

adjective

milk-liv·​ered Ë?milk-ËŒli-vÉ™rd How to pronounce milk-livered (audio)
Synonyms of milk-liverednext
archaic
: cowardly, timorous

Synonyms

See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus 

Examples of milk-livered in a Sentence

vented his spleen at those milk-livered men who refused to fight for king and country

Word History

First Known Use

1606, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of milk-livered was in 1606

Dictionary Entries Near milk-livered

milklike

milk-livered

milkmaid

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Milk-livered.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/milk-livered. Accessed 14 Jan. 2025.

Copy Citation

Share

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See All

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Using Bullet Points ( • )

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

More Commonly Misspelled Words
See All

Popular in Wordplay

See All

Top 12 Sophisticated Compliments

Word of the Year 2024 | Polarization

Terroir, Oenophile, & Magnum: Ten Words About Wine

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments

10 Words from Taylor Swift Songs (Merriam's Version)
See All

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
yorkshire terrier dressed up as a doctor
A Visit with the Word Doctor: Medical Terms Quiz Give your vocabulary a checkup