liv·er·y¹ / ˈliv(ə)rē/ • n. (pl. -er·ies) 1. special uniform worn by a servant or official. ∎  a special design and color scheme used on the vehicles, aircraft, or products of a particular company.2. short for livery stable.3. (in the UK) the members of a livery company collectively.4. hist. a provision of food or clothing for servants.PHRASES: at livery (of a horse) kept for the owner and fed and cared for at a fixed charge.DERIVATIVES: liv·er·ied / ˈliv(ə)rēd/ adj. (in sense 1).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 sense 4, also ‘allowance of provender for horses,’ surviving in the phrase at livery and in livery stable. Sense 1 arose because medieval nobles provided matching clothes to distinguish their servants from others'.liv·er·y² • adj. resembling liver in color or consistency: he was short with livery lips. ∎ inf. liverish: port always makes you livery.

livery a special uniform worn by a servant, an official, or a member of a City Company. The original sense was ‘the dispensing of food, provisions, or clothing to servants’, and the sense of a special uniform arose because medieval nobles provided matching clothes to distinguish their own servants from those of others.
livery company in the UK, any of the London City companies, which formerly had distinctive costumes. Descended from medieval craft guilds, the companies are now largely social and charitable organizations; none is now a trading company, though some still have some involvement with the operation of their original trade; several support public schools (e.g. Merchant Taylors, Haberdashers), and collectively they are involved in various forms of technical education. A member of such a company is known as a liveryman.

livery dispensing of provision to retainers XIII; allowance of provender for horses; suit of clothes for retainers XIV; legal delivery of property XV. — AN. liveré, (O)F. livrée, sb. use of fem. pp. of livrer DELIVER, dispense :- L. līberāre; see -Y5.

Livery

retainers collectively, 1413.