chicken-livered

adjective

ˈchi-kən-ˌli-vərd How to pronounce chicken-livered (audio)
Definition of chicken-liverednext
as in afraid
having or showing a shameful lack of courage a chicken-livered newspaper editor who has been afraid to take on the town's powerful business elite

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for chicken-livered
  1. afraid
  2. yellow
  3. scared
  4. frightened
  5. careful
  6. pusillanimous
  7. unheroic
  8. cowardly
Adjective
  • The ruling leaves trans student-athletes and their advocates feeling angry and afraid.
    — Elizabeth Robinson, NBC news, 1 July 2026
  • Pregnant mothers are afraid of their babies not being able to have a home.
    — Dennis Valera, CBS News, 30 June 2026
Definition of afraid
Adjective
  • Shortly after, the mom-to-be stepped out in the Big Apple wearing a strapless yellow velvet gown with a floral design from Lela Rose’s Resort 2027 collection.
    — Emily Blackwood, PEOPLE, 8 July 2026
  • If Eloise had The Plaza, then Katerina and Gabrielle Tana had Dan Tana’s—the beloved red-sauce joint in a little yellow house on Santa Monica Boulevard that’s been a Los Angeles staple since 1964.
    — Elise Taylor, Vanity Fair, 7 July 2026
Definition of yellow
Adjective
  • On Saturday, July 4, the Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department rescued a dog that had fallen into a well after running away scared from the sound of fireworks.
    — Emily Harter, Kansas City Star, 6 July 2026
  • Playing happily one second, and too scared to be alone the next.
    — Tereza Shkurtaj, PEOPLE, 5 July 2026
Definition of scared
Adjective
  • In May, a frightened horse rammed into another carriage, causing the vehicle to flip over, injuring the driver.
    — ANDREA SACHS THE WASHINGTON POST, Arkansas Online, 28 June 2026
  • Rodríguez acknowledged that many remain too frightened to return home even after inspections declared some buildings safe.
    — Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 27 June 2026
Definition of frightened
Adjective
  • Determination and careful calculations — hold on, carry the 2 — are a must.
    — Randy McMullen, Mercury News, 2 July 2026
  • Graduate students face lower federal limits and the loss of Grad PLUS, requiring careful financial planning.
    — Scott White, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of careful
Adjective
  • Some also have lost lawyers, dismayed by the pusillanimous behavior of their leaders.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2025
  • The second believed the United States could attain comprehensive security through military-technological means and saw diplomacy as a quixotic or pusillanimous enterprise that dishonored and weakened the country.
    — A. Wess Mitchell, Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2025
Definition of pusillanimous
Adjective
  • Yes, Arsenal fan Neel from New Delhi held his nerve on the final day to shake off the persistent and heroic challenge of six-year-old Wilfred — and the meandering, distinctly unheroic challenge of a 51-year-old journalist.
    — Oliver Kay, New York Times, 26 May 2026
  • That larger significance is remarkably unheroic and fatalistic.
    — Gabriel Winslow-Yost, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024
Definition of unheroic
Adjective
  • Or maybe the problem is Cape Fear itself for being too cowardly to commit to the certainty that drove the previous versions of this story.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 26 June 2026
  • But even the most perfect Constitution can be undone by the wicked with the help of the bought, the stupid, and the cowardly.
    — Ann Manov, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026
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

Chicken Littles
chicken-livered
chicken (out)
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Cite this Entry

“Chicken-livered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chicken-livered. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

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