Liver

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who lives or has life; one who continues to live.
2. n. One who resides; a resident; a dweller: as, a liver in Glasgow.
3. n. One who lives in a certain manner, the manner being expressed by an adjective: as, a good or evil liver, a fast liver, a loose liver (that is, a person of good or evil, fast, or loose habits); a good liver, a hearty liver (one addicted to good living or high feeding).
4. n. In anatomy, a large gland, secreting bile and performing other important metabolic functions, situated in the upper part of the abdominal cavity on the right side. The human liver lies beneath the diaphragm, and weighs 50 or 60 ounces. It presents a large right- and a smaller left-hand lobe, and on the under surface are distinguished a quadrate lobe, a caudate lobe, and a lobus Spigelii. The gallbladder lies in a fissure on its under side. The liver is supplied with blood by the portal vein and the hepatic artery, and discharges it by the hepatic veins. The bile is conveyed away by the bile-ducts, which unite to form the hepatic duct. There are five fissures: the longitudinal, which separates the right and left lobes, and contains the round ligament; the venous, the continuation of the former backward, containing the remains of the ductus venosus; the caval, for the inferior vena cava or postcaval vein; the portal or transverse, connecting the others, also called the porta or gateway of the liver, where lie the portal vein, hepatic artery, and hepatic duct; with a depression for the gall-bladder, called, for convenience in enumerating, the fifth fissure. There are likewise five ligaments: right and left lateral, coronary, and falciform, consisting of folds of peritoneum, and the round ligament, which is the obliterated umbilical vein of the fetus. A liver like that of man in all essentials exists in nearly all vertebrates. Glandular structures or tissues recognizable as hepatic occur in very many invertebrates, and are commonly called liver. Thus. the mass of dark-greenish substance in the thickest part of an oyster is the liver of that creature, and a glandular organ in worms, connected with the mid-gut, receives the same name. The livers of food-animals constitute a common article of diet. The Liver was formerly supposed to be the seat of love.
5. n. Hence The bay or glossy ibis, Falcinellus igneus, which when adult has the plumage chiefly liver-colored or hepatic.
6. To deliver.
7. Lively.
8. n. A fabulous bird borne upon the arms of Liverpool, England, traditionally supposed to have given a part of the name of that city. It has been variously identified. See liver, 2.
9. n. Temper, or irritation, as a result of a disorder of the liver.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who, or that which, lives.
2. n. A resident; a dweller.
3. n. One whose course of life has some marked characteristic (expressed by an adjective).
4. n. (Anat.) A very large glandular and vascular organ in the visceral cavity of all vertebrates.
5. n. (Zoöl.) The glossy ibis (Ibis falcinellus); -- said to have given its name to the city of Liverpool.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a person who has a special life style
2. n. liver of an animal used as meat
3. n. someone who lives in a place
4. adj. having a reddish-brown color
5. n. 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