livery
noun
[ ˈlɪv(ə)ri ]
• a special uniform worn by a servant, an official, or a member of a City Company.
• "yeomen of the guard wearing a royal red and gold livery"
Similar:
uniform,
regalia,
costume,
dress,
attire,
habit,
garb,
clothes,
clothing,
outfit,
suit,
garments,
ensemble,
robes,
finery,
get-up,
gear,
togs,
clobber,
duds,
kit,
apparel,
raiment,
array,
vestments,
• short for livery stable.
• (in the UK) the members of a City livery company collectively.
• a provision of food or clothing for servants.
• the ceremonial procedure at common law of conveying freehold land to a grantee.
Origin:
Middle English: from Old French livree ‘delivered’, feminine past participle of livrer, from Latin liberare ‘liberate’ (in medieval Latin ‘hand over’). The original sense was ‘the dispensing of food, provisions, or clothing to servants’; hence livery1 (sense 4), also ‘allowance of provender for horses’, surviving in the phrase at livery and in livery stable. livery1 (sense 1) arose because medieval nobles provided matching clothes to distinguish their servants from others'.
livery
adjective
• resembling liver in colour or consistency.
• "he was short with livery lips"
• (of soil) heavy.
at livery
• (of a horse) kept for the owner and fed and cared for at a fixed charge.
