Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Discolored, especially dark bluish or purple, as from a bruise: Describes skin discoloration caused by injury or congestion of blood beneath the surface.
   • Extremely angry; furious: Describes a state of intense, often uncontrollable anger.
   • Ashen, pallid, or deathly pale: Describes a very pale complexion, typically from shock, illness, or strong emotion.
   • (Literary) Of a light or color: having a ghastly, bluish, or leaden hue: Describes an unnatural, often eerie, luminosity.

Usage Examples

• Discolored (from bruising or congestion):
  • His arm was livid where he had been struck.
  • She had a livid mark on her forehead from the fall.
• Furiously angry:
  • The manager was livid when he saw the mistake.
  • She was absolutely livid at the unfair accusation.
• Ashen or deathly pale:
  • His face turned livid with shock when he heard the news.
  • The patient's livid complexion worried the nurses.
• (Literary) Ghastly hue:
  • The sky was lit by livid flashes of lightning.
  • The room was bathed in a livid, unnatural glow.

Advanced Usage

• "livid with rage/anger": Used to intensify the description of someone's fury.
  • He was livid with rage after the argument.
• "livid at something/someone": Describes the target of the anger.
  • She was livid at the company's poor customer service.

Variants and Related Words

• Lividity (noun): The state of being livid, either as discoloration or extreme anger.
  • The lividity of the bruise was alarming.
  • His lividity was evident to everyone in the room.

Synonyms

• For "discolored": Black-and-blue, bruised, contused, purplish.
• For "angry": Furious, enraged, infuriated, incensed, wrathful.
• For "pale": Ashen, pallid, wan, blanched, bloodless, ghastly.

Idioms and Fixed Phrases

• "To be/look livid": A common phrase to describe someone who is visibly furious.
  • When he saw the broken window, he looked absolutely livid.
• "Livid with shock/fear": Describes pallor caused by a strong, negative emotion.
  • Her face was livid with fear when she saw the intruder.

Adjective

1. discolored by coagulation of blood beneath the skin
   • beaten black and blue
   • livid bruises
2. furiously angry
   • willful stupidity makes him absolutely livid
3. (of a light) imparting a deathlike luminosity
   • livid lightning streaked the sky
   • a thousand flambeaux...turned all at once that deep gloom into a livid and preternatural day- E.A.Poe
4. anemic looking from illness or emotion
   • a face turned ashen
   • the invalid's blanched cheeks
   • tried to speak with bloodless lips
   • a face livid with shock
   • lips...livid with the hue of death- Mary W. Shelley
   • lips white with terror
   • a face white with rage