Dictionary

lily-liveredly en · ADV

Etymology

From lily-livered + -ly.

Meanings

1. (rare) In a lily-livered manner.
   • It’s either you fight or you die. / Young Gents, you’ve got no option. / No good asking the reason why, / It’s either you fight or you die, / Die, die, lily-liveredly die, / Or fight and make the splinters fly, / Bust up the holy apple pie. / You’ve got no option. 1928 December 28, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “[…] It’s Either You Fight or You Die”, in Aldous Huxley, editor, The Letters of D. H. Lawrence, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, published 1932, →OCLC, part 4 (December 1923–February 1930), page 780:
   • Afraid my emotions would betray me, I repressed my instincts and lily-liveredly accepted the accusations of authority that she wouldn’t, rather than her protestations that she couldn’t. 2011, Nuala Jackson, “Thursday 6th February”, in Whoopee!! I’m Going to Die!, Drogheda, County Louth: Choice Publishing & Book Services, →ISBN, page 18:
   • Taking a deep breath, Rafael made himself face up to the facts he’d stupidly and lily-liveredly shied away from in an absurd effort to distance himself from Nicky and the way she made him feel, his pulse racing and his breathing shallowing. 2013, Lucy King, chapter 14, in One More Sleepless Night (Harlequin KISS; 13), Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin, →ISBN; republished in Just Once More… (By Request), London: Mills & Boon, 2016, →ISBN, page 171:
   • If more rootin’ countries acted decisively like tootin’ Zanoria and not lily-liveredly like rootin’-tootin’ France the better place the whole rootin’-tootin’ planet’d be. 2010, Gregory Dark, chapter 11, in Charming! or, If the Glass Slipper Fits…, Ropley, Hampshire: O Books, →ISBN, page 50:

Forms