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

Example 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
  • But remember to keep your calendar flexible and don’t be afraid to pivot.
    — Sean McNally, Outdoor Life, 13 Mar. 2025
  • However, don’t be afraid to use that monogram from your invitation suite.
    — Shelby Wax, Vogue, 13 Mar. 2025
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
  • In addition to selling yellow mustard and hot sauce, the division makes ketchup, onion flavorings and other products.
    — Nick Turner, Bloomberg.com, 19 July 2017
Definition of yellow
Adjective
  • As the scream queen, there’s a role that Sam’s character can play, either angry at Paul, fighting back, or super scared.
    — Barry Levitt, Rolling Stone, 15 Mar. 2025
  • TikTok is eating our lunch, and executives are scared.
    — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2025
Definition of scared
Adjective
  • Inside, the staff scrambles for cover and a frightened woman and child are seen hiding behind a buffet counter.
    — Mark Price, Miami Herald, 11 Mar. 2025
  • Staying apolitical in his work, Lynch expressed the personal idiosyncrasy that reflected his upbringing in Midwest America (born in Missoula, Mont., and of Finnish-Danish heritage) as well as his private, frightened knowledge of national terror.
    — Armond White, National Review, 17 Jan. 2025
Definition of frightened
Adjective
  • These concerns underscore the need for careful consideration of privacy rights when deploying such technology.
    — Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy Report, Fox News, 15 Mar. 2025
  • Rendering animal fat requires careful heating and purification to remove impurities.
    — Boutayna Chokrane, WIRED, 14 Mar. 2025
Definition of careful
Adjective
  • There was no fanfare — indeed no announcement or change in Oscar rules — but a firestorm of controversy resulted, followed by the Academy’s cowardly, pusillanimous silence on the issue.
    — Armond White, National Review, 5 Mar. 2025
  • 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
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
  • Denying students access to our complete history is fundamentally cowardly.
    — Britt Hogue, Baltimore Sun, 26 Feb. 2025
  • Two beloved members of the Tijuana journalism community were killed in two separate cowardly attacks.
    — Tania Navarro, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Mar. 2025
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.

Browse Nearby Words

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 26 Mar. 2025.

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