livery
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlɪ.və.ɹi/
ipa: /ˈlɪv.ɹi/
ipa: /ˈlɪ.və.ɹi/
rhymes: -ɪv(ə)ɹɪ
rhymes: -ɪvəɹi
Forms: form: liveries
form: liveray
form: liverie
Etymology: From Middle English livery, liveree, from Anglo-Norman liveree, from Old French livree. Compare modern French livrée.
Senses: examples: text: And while the moralist, who is holding forth on the cover ( an accurate portrait of your humble servant), professes to wear neither gown nor bands, but only the very same long-eared livery in which his congregation is arrayed: yet, look you, one is bound to speak the truth as far as one knows it, whether one mounts a cap and bells or a shovel hat; and a deal of disagreeable matter must come out in the course of such an undertaking.
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
text: “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery. […]”
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: By wearing livery, the brewers publicly expressed guild association and solidarity.
ref: 1996, Judith M. Bennett, Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600:
text: The 35-year-old must adore this ground as this was his sixth strike in total here: four of these were previously in Manchester City livery, the other in that of Wolfsburg.
ref: 2021 April 29, Jamie Jackson, “Edinson Cavani and Bruno Fernandes help Manchester United hit Roma for six”, in The Guardian:
glosses: Any distinctive identifying uniform worn by a group, such as the uniform worn by chauffeurs and male servants.
glosses: The whole body of liverymen, members of livery companies.
examples: text: The airline's new livery received a mixed reaction from the press.
text: The glass fibre body has the advantage of lightness and obviates the need for painting as the material is self-coloured in the standard B.R. maroon livery.
ref: 1961 October, “Car carriage by rail - at home and abroad: 1. New B.R. "covered wagons"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 594:
text: The roads were jammed with matatu minibuses sporting cartoonish liveries, and trucks billowing black smoke into the dazzling African light.
ref: 2024 January 13, David Pilling, “Revenge of the moderators”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 15:
glosses: The paint scheme of a vehicle or fleet of vehicles.
glosses: A taxicab or limousine.
topics: law
glosses: The delivery of property from one owner to the next.
topics: law
glosses: The writ by which property is obtained.
examples: text: […] Pegasus does not stand at livery even at the largest establishment in Moorfields.
ref: 1876, James Russell Lowell, “Keats”, in Among My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 305:
glosses: The rental of horses or carriages; the rental of canoes; the care and/or boarding of horses for money.
glosses: A stable that keeps horses or carriages for rental.
examples: text: The emperor's officers every night went through the town from house to house whereat any English gentleman did repast or lodge, and served their liveries for all night: first, the officers brought into the house a cast of fine manchet [white bread], and of silver two great post, and white wine, and sugar.
ref: 1825, George Cavendish, edited by Samuel Weller Singer, Life of Cardinal Wolsey:
glosses: An allowance of food; a ration, as given out to a family, to servants, to horses, etc.
examples: text: It concerned them first to sue out their livery from the unjust wardship of his encroaching prerogative.
ref: 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Release from wardship; deliverance.
glosses: A low grade of wool.
examples: text: When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,
dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held:
ref: 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 2”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
glosses: Outward markings, fittings or appearance
Derived terms: coign and livery
devil's livery
livery stable
liverywoman
livery yard
relivery
servant out of livery
sue one's livery