Chapter Liquor up to Livered of L by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Little Gentleman in Velvet (The). The mole. “To the little gentleman in velvet” was a favourite Jacobite toast in the reign of Queen Anne. The reference was to the mole that raised the mole-hill against which the horse of William III. stumbled at Hampton Court. By this accident the king broke his collar-bone, a severe illness ensued, and he died early in 1702.

Little Packs become a Little Pedlar “Little boats must keep near shore, larger ones may venture more.”

“Mainwaring is a clever justice-
In him, my lord, our only trust is-
Burdett's a ratten meddler;
Volks shud turn round and see their backs,
And meend [mind] old proverbs: `Little packs
Become a little pedlar.”
Peter Pindar: Middlesex Election, letter i.

Liturgy originally meant public work, such as arranging the dancing and singing on public festivals, the torch-races, the equipping and manning of ships, etc. In the Church of England it means the religious forms prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. (Greek, litourgia.)

Live He lived like a knave, and died like a fool. Said by Bishop Warburton of Henry Rich, first Earl of Holland, the turncoat. He went to the scaffold dressed in white satin, trimmed with silver.

Liver-vein (The). A love rhapsody. The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. When Longaville reads the verses, Biron says, in an aside, “This is the liver-vein, which makes flesh a deity.” (Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3.)

Livered As, white-livered, lily-livered. Cowardly. In the auspices taken by the Greeks and Romans before battle, if the liver of the animals sacrificed was healthy and blood-red, the omen was favourable; but if pale, it augured defeat.

“Thou lily-livered boy.”
Shakespeare: Macbeth v. 3.