LIVERY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does livery mean? 

• LIVERY (noun)
  The noun LIVERY has 3 senses:

1. uniform worn by some menservants and chauffeurs

2. the voluntary transfer of something (title or possession) from one party to another

3. the care (feeding and stabling) of horses for pay

  Familiarity information: LIVERY used as a noun is uncommon.

• LIVERY (adjective)
  The adjective LIVERY has 1 sense:

1. suffering from or suggesting a liver disorder or gastric distress

  Familiarity information: LIVERY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LIVERY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Uniform worn by some menservants and chauffeurs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("livery" is a kind of...):

uniform (clothing of distinctive design worn by members of a particular group as a means of identification)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The voluntary transfer of something (title or possession) from one party to another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

delivery; legal transfer; livery

Hypernyms ("livery" is a kind of...):

conveyance; conveyance of title; conveyancing; conveying (act of transferring property title from one person to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "livery"):

surrender (the delivery of a principal into lawful custody)

bailment (the delivery of personal property in trust by the bailor to the bailee)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The care (feeding and stabling) of horses for pay

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("livery" is a kind of...):

aid; attention; care; tending (the work of providing treatment for or attending to someone or something)

• LIVERY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Suffering from or suggesting a liver disorder or gastric distress

Synonyms:

bilious; liverish; livery

Similar:

ill; sick (affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function)

Derivation:

liver (large and complicated reddish-brown glandular organ located in the upper right portion of the abdominal cavity; secretes bile and functions in metabolism of protein and carbohydrate and fat; synthesizes substances involved in the clotting of the blood; synthesizes vitamin A; detoxifies poisonous substances and breaks down worn-out erythrocytes)

 Context examples 

Nobody could have thought of putting him in a livery, he was so highly respectable.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Aye, but you see, returned Ben Gunn, I didn't mean giving me a gate to keep, and a suit of livery clothes, and such; that's not my mark, Jim.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The reins and fittings were of a light fawn colour, and the gentleman had a driving-coat to match, with a servant in dark livery behind.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The horses were post; and neither the carriage, nor the livery of the servant who preceded it, were familiar to them.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She would canter up to the door on her pony, followed by a mounted livery servant.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"Then I take it for granted," observed Sir Walter, "that his face is about as orange as the cuffs and capes of my livery."

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Whenever I had a mind to see the town, it was always in my travelling-closet; which Glumdalclitch held in her lap in a kind of open sedan, after the fashion of the country, borne by four men, and attended by two others in the queen’s livery.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Elizabeth immediately recognizing the livery, guessed what it meant, and imparted no small degree of her surprise to her relations by acquainting them with the honour which she expected.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Oh! the great-coat was hanging over the panel, and hid the arms, so it did; otherwise, I am sure, I should have observed them, and the livery too; if the servant had not been in mourning, one should have known him by the livery.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

A little way down the room I saw the black face and woolly head of Bill Richmond, in a purple-and-gold footman’s livery—destined to be the predecessor of Molineaux, Sutton, and all that line of black boxers who have shown that the muscular power and insensibility to pain which distinguish the African give him a peculiar advantage in the sports of the ring.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)