livery
English
WOTD – 9 February 2009
Etymology 1
From Anglo-Norman liveree, from Old French livree. Compare modern French livrée.
Alternative forms
- liveray
Pronunciation
Audio (US) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /ˈlɪv.ə.ɹi/
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈlɪv.ɹɪ/, /ˈlɪv.ə.ɹɪ/
- Rhymes: -ɪv(ə)ɹɪ
Noun
livery (countable and uncountable, plural liveries)
- Any distinctive identifying uniform worn by a group, such as the uniform worn by chauffeurs and male servants.
- 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, OCLC 3174108:
- And while the moralist, who is holding forth on the cover ( an accurate portrait of your humble servant), professes to wear neither gown nor bands, but only the very same long-eared livery in which his congregation is arrayed: yet, look you, one is bound to speak the truth as far as one knows it, whether one mounts a cap and bells or a shovel hat; and a deal of disagreeable matter must come out in the course of such an undertaking.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery. […]”
- 1996, Judith M. Bennett, Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600
- By wearing livery, the brewers publicly expressed guild association and solidarity.
- 2021 April 29, Jamie Jackson, “Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six”, in The Guardian:
- The 35-year-old must adore this ground as this was his sixth strike in total here: four of these were previously in Manchester City livery, the other in that of Wolfsburg.
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- The whole body of liverymen, members of livery companies.
- The paint scheme of a vehicle or fleet of vehicles.
- The airline's new livery received a mixed reaction from the press.
- 1961 October, “Car carriage by rail - at home and abroad: 1. New B.R. "covered wagons"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 594:
- The glass fibre body has the advantage of lightness and obviates the need for painting as the material is self-coloured in the standard B.R. maroon livery.
- (US) A taxicab or limousine.
- (law) The delivery of property from one owner to the next.
- (law) The writ by which property is obtained.
- (historical) The rental of horses or carriages; the rental of canoes; the care and/or boarding of horses for money.
- 1876, James Russell Lowell, “Keats”, in Among My Books: Second Series:
- Pegasus does not stand at livery even at the largest establishment in Moorfields.
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- (historical) A stable that keeps horses or carriages for rental.
- An allowance of food; a ration, as given out to a family, to servants, to horses, etc.
- 1825, George Cavendish, Life of Cardinal Wolsey (edited by Samuel Weller Singer)
- The emperor's officers every night went through the town from house to house whereat any English gentleman did repast or lodge, and served their liveries for all night: first, the officers brought into the house a cast of fine manchet [white bread], and of silver two great post, and white wine, and sugar.
- 1825, George Cavendish, Life of Cardinal Wolsey (edited by Samuel Weller Singer)
- Release from wardship; deliverance.
- 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], OCLC 1044608640:
- It concerned them first to sue out their livery from the unjust wardship of his encroaching prerogative.
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- A low grade of wool.
- Outward markings, fittings or appearance
- 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 2”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, OCLC 216596634:
- When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,
dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held:
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Derived terms
- livery stable
Translations
distinctive uniform worn by a group
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paint scheme
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taxicab, limousine — see taxicab, limousine
legal: delivery of property
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legal: writ
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Verb
livery (third-person singular simple present liveries, present participle liverying, simple past and past participle liveried)
- (archaic) To clothe.
- He liveried his servants in the most modest of clothing.
Translations
to clothe in
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Etymology 2
liver + -y
Adjective
livery (comparative more livery, superlative most livery)
- Like liver.
- 2004, Anne DesBrisay, Capital Dining: Anne DesBrisay's Guide to Ottawa Restaurants, ECW Press, →ISBN, page 19:
- We are happy for the chopped mushrooms within the warm goose liver paté, for the coarse, highly seasoned wedge has a robust livery flavour the 'shrooms manage to ease.
- 2010, Christopher Kimball, Fannie's Last Supper: Re-creating One Amazing Meal from Fannie Farmer's 1896 Cookbook, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
- A second test was similar, but we brought the internal temperature up to 130 degrees; the texture was chewy, the meat tasted livery, and had not melted.
- 2010, Fidel Toldr, Handbook of Meat Processing, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 35:
- Sulfur-containing compounds (thiols, sulfides, thiazoles, sulfur-substituted furans) can interact with carbonyl compounds to produce a livery flavor.
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- Queasy, liverish.
- 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, Sydney: Ure Smith, published 1962, OCLC 751607287, page 204:
- He woke feeling livery, and aware that he had overslept the morning.
- 2011, Dr Dorothy Shepherd, Homoeopathy For The First Aider, Random House, →ISBN, page 58:
- The biliousness and livery feeling will disappear and the feeling of joy and happiness will be the reward.
- 2011, Alec Waugh, Fuel for the Flame, A&C Black, →ISBN:
- He felt fresh and buoyant. When he was young, and had taken a siesta, he had felt livery for a couple of hours afterwards, with a tongue like a chicken run
- 2014, Emily Hahn, China to Me: A Partial Autobiography, Open Road Media, →ISBN:
- To like everyone and to be happy with anyone was a virtue and its own reward, but I realized now that for weeks I had been feeling livery, impatient, restless.
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Anagrams
- verily