pigeon-livered

[ pij-uhn-liv-erd ]

adjective

1. meek-tempered; spiritless; mild.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pigeon-livered¹

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

“I am pigeon-livered and lack gall,” he laments.

From New York Times

Never was a Hamlet less pigeon-livered; yet never was there one who was less "the glass of fashion and the mold of form."

From Time Magazine Archive

Young, sensitive, delicate, he was like     "A bud bit by an envious worm,     Ere he could spread his sweet leaves to the air,     Or dedicate his beauty to the sun"— and unable to endure the miscreant cry and idiot laugh, withdrew to sigh his last breath in foreign climes.—The public is as envious and ungrateful as it is ignorant, stupid, and pigeon-livered— "A huge-sized monster of ingratitudes."

From Project Gutenberg

"Pigeon-livered blatherskite!—that's what I call ye—d'ye hear?" said Drayton.

From Project Gutenberg

It must needs be thou art pigeon-livered and lack gall!

From Project Gutenberg