cod liver meaning: definition, quotations

cod liver

nounalso spelled cod-liver

The liver of codfish.

The menhaden ester fractions were worked up more thoroughly than the cod liver esters, but it was assumed, on the basis of the indicated similarity, that the cod liver oil possessed essentially the same composition as the menhaden. […] Bell (1851) wrote that pigs which ate cod livers became very fat, and their fat acquired the color and odor of cod liver oil.1927, Charles E. Bills, “The Principal Chemical Researches on Cod Liver Oil”, in W[illiam] A[lbert] Noyes, editor, Chemical Reviews, volume III, Baltimore, Md., pages 430 and 432:
Community Chick Mash / Yellow corn meal or hominy, feeding oat meal, wheat bran, wheat middlings, red dog middlings, alfalfa meal, dried milk, choice meat scraps, fish meal, precipitated bone meal, calcium carbonate, cod liver meal, cod liver oil, salt.1937 November, Philip H. Smith, Inspection of Commercial Feedstuffs (Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station, Control Series, Bulletin No. 89), Amherst, Mass.: Massachusetts State College, page 34:

4 more examples

The Berliners stuffed themselves with fish. They ate cod and cod livers by preference, because this was a fatty, tasty dish and not too expensive. It was true that after eating cod liver you smelled of it for a long while, but the Berliners were highly vitamin-conscious by now—and rightly so.1952, Curt Riess, “The City That Is Different”, in The Berlin Story, New York, N.Y.: The Dial Press, →LCCN, page 261:
They spent 40 days aboard Soviet vessel off Southern Labrador and observed fishing and processing of cod and ocean perch into fillets, canned cod liver, cod-liver oil, dressed cod and perch, and meal.1967 March, “Japanese Technicians Observe Soviet North Atlantic Operations”, in Commercial Fisheries Review, volume 29, number 3, page 25, column 1:
Canned cod liver is available any place, as are smoked flounder and German caviar, not to mention a wide selection of sardines.1970, LaVern Rippley, “German Food”, in Of German Ways, Minneapolis, Minn.: Dillon Press, Inc., published 1973, →ISBN, page 252:
A few years ago, during the 50s, there was no problem with cod liver. […] We could buy this product anywhere, in Quebec City and in Montreal; this canned cod liver was excellent, much better than the product which is now being sold by Denmark. […] I think we could do something about this cod liver which is produced on the Labrador Coast. […] Not only that, but most of the fishermen I talked to, in Newfoundland for example, the mere idea of eating cod liver makes them sick.1988 February 4, Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries, […] the Queen’s Printer for Canada, page 25 : 127, column 2:

Derived terms: cod liver oil

cod-liver

noun

Rare Rare form of cod liver.

Casks of rotting cod-liver taint the air at every fishing-stage and on every one of the hundreds of schooners, while even one small seal-oil factory is run, in the Straits of Belle Isle.1901 November, W. T. Grenfell, “Life in Labrador”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXX, number MXXXIII, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood & Sons, […], page 689, column 1:
I must not fail to mention that a distillery for the purpose of converting cod-livers into oil was established here last year by a New Yorker, but, through circumstances which are hard to explain, the whole business failed entirely, and the plant was finally removed to Grand Greve, Gaspé, Quebec.1905, Sessional Papers, Volume 9, First Session of the Tenth Parliament of the Dominion of Canada, Session 1905, volume XXXIX, page 334:

3 more examples

The Grimsby correspondent of the “Daily Mail” reports that the first trawler to be fitted with machinery to convert cod-livers into oil while at sea is the Sweeper, which arrived at Grimsby last week.1913 June 7, The Chemist and Druggist: A Weekly Journal of the Chemical and Drug Trades and of British Pharmacists throughout the Empire, volume LXXXII, number 23 (Series No. 1741), page 62, column 1:
From the moment that first batch of fish was salted down that boat came alive with smells. The fresh smell of the sea, wafted by a stiff breeze off the ice-caps, was now displaced by the stench of rotting cod-livers.1934, Thelma Roberts, Red Hell: The Life Story of John Goode, Criminal, New York, N.Y.: Rae D. Henkle:
The dory was high and dry on the beach, enveloped in the now familiar stench of rotting cod-livers.1969, Farley Mowat, “Voyage of the “Oregon””, in The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published 1981, →ISBN, page 128: