milk-livered

adjective

ˈmilk-ˌli-vərd How to pronounce milk-livered (audio)
Definition of milk-liverednext
archaic
as in afraid
having or showing a shameful lack of courage vented his spleen at those milk-livered men who refused to fight for king and country

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for milk-livered
  1. afraid
  2. yellow
  3. scared
  4. frightened
  5. careful
  6. pusillanimous
  7. unheroic
  8. cowardly
Adjective
  • Whether the two will remain as close once Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20 is unclear, as the president-elect isn’t afraid to cut ties with those who undermine him.
    Samantha-Jo Roth, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 31 Dec. 2024
  • In a sport rife with stiff CEO-type coaches, the 34-year-old is not afraid to be himself.
    Doug Haller, The Athletic, 30 Dec. 2024
Definition of afraid
Adjective
  • The look features bright coral eyeshadow covering the eyelid, a fuchsia shade in the crease, and a swipe of fluorescent yellow eyeliner on the outside half of the eye and right under the brow.
    Andrea Park, Teen Vogue, 20 July 2017
  • Three prominent Austin chefs teamed up with the Youngblood family to build a new restaurant from scratch that looks like a legacy chicken dinner house, down to the bright blue-and-yellow colors and the helpings of hot yeast rolls with honey.
    Bud Kennedy, star-telegram, 19 July 2017
Definition of yellow
Adjective
  • Here’s a great piece from this week: Albert Sanders Jr., the boy with the big dreams and the bigger drive, was scared.
    Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 29 Dec. 2024
  • Like, trends largely exist because many people are scared of being seen as an outsider.
    Rebecca Jennings, Vox, 27 Dec. 2024
Definition of scared
Adjective
  • When Martin dies in class after getting frightened in a dream, the sheet is accidentally pulled off of his gurney to reveal his death rictus.
    Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 17 Dec. 2024
  • His fervor to determine who took the weapon reveals a shockingly monstrous side, turning his wife and children into frightened suspects and leading to a jarring tonal-shift ending that proves to be a cathartic, believable final destination for a film simmering with mistrust and anger.
    Tim Grierson, Los Angeles Times, 28 Nov. 2024
Definition of frightened
Adjective
  • Going slowly and applying heat with a hair dryer can help reduce the risk of damage, but the difficulty of this process is a solid reason to be careful with your installation.
    Simon Hill, WIRED, 27 Dec. 2024
  • Identifying ground zero for the advent of Dengue Fever can be tricky, but careful research has identified Aquarius Records in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District as the primary origin of the infectiously melodic band.
    Andrew Gilbert, The Mercury News, 27 Dec. 2024
Definition of careful
Adjective
  • Mark Kelly Americans who are rightfully appalled by the pusillanimous response to anti-Semitism on college campuses have been pulling their donations and calling for restrictions on anti-Israel student groups.
    Arthur Levitt, WSJ, 12 Nov. 2023
  • Those clumsy tales revealed Chazelle’s pusillanimous career ambitions.
    Armond White, National Review, 13 Jan. 2023
Definition of pusillanimous
Adjective
  • That larger significance is remarkably unheroic and fatalistic.
    Gabriel Winslow-Yost, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024
  • In the world of The Boys, based on the gleefully scabrous 2000s indie comic-book series of the same name by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson, superheroes are real, pop-culture-dominating, and with rare exceptions, entirely unheroic.
    Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 13 June 2024
Definition of unheroic
Adjective
  • Social media has erupted with praise for this cowardly attack.
    Dan Perry, Newsweek, 17 Dec. 2024
  • The cowardly cook will turn to squid as a replacement, but only cuttlefish deliver the essential alien squirm, and the relevant recipes are a treat.
    Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2024
Definition of cowardly
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near milk-livered

milking

milk-livered

milks

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Cite this Entry

“Milk-livered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/milk-livered. Accessed 4 Jan. 2025.

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