liver
    adj 1: having a reddish-brown color [syn: liver-colored,
           liver]
    n 1: large and complicated reddish-brown glandular organ located
         in the upper right portion of the abdominal cavity;
         secretes bile and functions in metabolism of protein and
         carbohydrate and fat; synthesizes substances involved in
         the clotting of the blood; synthesizes vitamin A;
         detoxifies poisonous substances and breaks down worn-out
         erythrocytes
    2: liver of an animal used as meat
    3: a person who has a special life style; "a high liver"
    4: someone who lives in a place; "a liver in cities"

Liver \Liv"er\, n. [AS. lifer; akin to D. liver, G. leber, OHG.
   lebara, Icel. lifr, Sw. lefver, and perh. to Gr. ? fat, E.
   live, v.] (Anat.)
   A very large glandular and vascular organ in the visceral
   cavity of all vertebrates.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: Most of the venous blood from the alimentary canal
         passes through it on its way back to the heart; and it
         secretes the bile, produces glycogen, and in other ways
         changes the blood which passes through it. In man it is
         situated immediately beneath the diaphragm and mainly
         on the right side. See Bile, Digestive, and
         Glycogen. The liver of invertebrate animals is
         usually made up of c[ae]cal tubes, and differs
         materially, in form and function, from that of
         vertebrates.
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   Floating liver. See Wandering liver, under Wandering.
      

   Liver of antimony, Liver of sulphur. (Old Chem.) See
      Hepar.

   Liver brown, Liver color, the color of liver, a dark,
      reddish brown.

   Liver shark (Zool.), a very large shark (Cetorhinus
      maximus), inhabiting the northern coasts both of Europe
      and North America. It sometimes becomes forty feet in
      length, being one of the largest sharks known; but it has
      small simple teeth, and is not dangerous. It is captured
      for the sake of its liver, which often yields several
      barrels of oil. It has gill rakers, resembling whalebone,
      by means of which it separates small animals from the sea
      water. Called also basking shark, bone shark,
      hoemother, homer, and sailfish; it is sometimes
      referred to as whale shark, but that name is more
      commonly used for the Rhincodon typus, which grows even
      larger.

   Liver spots, yellowish brown patches on the skin, or spots
      of chloasma.
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Liver \Liv"er\, n.
   1. One who, or that which, lives.
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            And try if life be worth the liver's care. --Prior.
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   2. A resident; a dweller; as, a liver in Brooklyn.
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   3. One whose course of life has some marked characteristic
      (expressed by an adjective); as, a free liver.
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   Fast liver, one who lives in an extravagant and dissipated
      way.

   Free liver, Good liver, one given to the pleasures of the
      table.

   Loose liver, a person who lives a somewhat dissolute life.
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Liver \Liv"er\ (l[i^]v"[~e]r), n. (Zool.)
   The glossy ibis (Ibis falcinellus); -- said to have given
   its name to the city of Liverpool.
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Liver
   (Heb. kabhed, "heavy;" hence the liver, as being the heaviest of
   the viscera, Ex. 29:13, 22; Lev. 3:4, 1, 10, 15) was burnt upon
   the altar, and not used as sacrificial food. In Ezek. 21:21
   there is allusion, in the statement that the king of Babylon
   "looked upon the liver," to one of the most ancient of all modes
   of divination. The first recorded instance of divination (q.v.)
   is that of the teraphim of Laban. By the teraphim the LXX. and
   Josephus understood "the liver of goats." By the "caul above the
   liver," in Lev. 4:9; 7:4, etc., some understand the great lobe
   of the liver itself.
   

LIVER, n.  A large red organ thoughtfully provided by nature to be
bilious with.  The sentiments and emotions which every literary
anatomist now knows to haunt the heart were anciently believed to
infest the liver; and even Gascoygne, speaking of the emotional side
of human nature, calls it "our hepaticall parte."  It was at one time
considered the seat of life; hence its name -- liver, the thing we
live with.  The liver is heaven's best gift to the goose; without it
that bird would be unable to supply us with the Strasbourg _pate_.