Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. cowardly.

1835		Westmoreland Gaz. 5 Sept. 4/5: A hen-pecked husband, forsooth! [...] the veriest chicken-livered husband in existence.
1860		Morn. Chron. 7 Feb. 5/3: This is a clever trick of the politicians to frighten chicken-livered Northerners.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It 96: Many a notorious coward, many a chicken-livered poltroon, coarse, brutal, degraded, has made his dying speech without a quaver in his voice.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Dec. 3/3: ‘Did I ask yeh for rinsins, yeh chicken-livered whelp?’.
1882		Tamworth Herald 29 July 6/3: He was a chicken-livered type-striker who [...] had sneaked away like a whipped spaniel.
1886		New Ulm Wkly Rev. (MN) 3 Feb. 6/2: If I’d supposed you’d ever turn out such a chicken-livered coward, I’d seen you starve before [etc.].
1899		Derby Mercury 22 Nov. 6/3: You infernal cad! [...] You — chicken-livered hound.
1908		S.E. White Riverman 20: What’s the matter with that chicken-livered bunch, anyway?
1916		Day Book (Chicago) 18 Aug. 2: A bunch of chicken-livered cold-blooded hypo-critical reformers preached sermons at them.
1920		Bourbon News (Paris, KY) 25 June 3/1: [advert] The man who is chicken-livered and yellow-hearted may frighten his business to death.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 62: Getting chicken livered, eh? The whole thing was your idea in the first place.
1937		Freeport Jrnl-Standard (IL) 22 Oct. 12/3: [cartoon caption] ‘Why, you low down, chicken livered poodle! [...] a dirty yella poodle!’.
1945		G. Fairlie Capt. Bulldog Drummond 35: A man I failed to arrest for blackmail because his victim was too chicken-livered to take the stand.
1958		C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 123: You’re trying to tell me you killed the white man, you chicken-livered punk?
1962		Mad mag. Sept. 9: Everybody in this town is a yellow, chicken-livered, sissified fink!
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 186: Everyone in earshot [...] was informed by the old man what a rotten, no-good, rat-brained, chicken-livered, egg-sucking, weasel-mouthed, lying sonofabitch Roosevelt really was.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 79: Variations include chicken-hearted, chicken-livered, chicken-spirited, and hen-hearted.

2. paltry.

2002

‘The Texas Gang’ 🌐 Ch. ii: You stinking goddamn no good chickenshit sonofabitch. If I had a leg only with a chickenlivered sprain like that, why Olive, I would be getting up from there and I know I would kick that chickenlivered door clean down.