White a. World English Historical Dictionary

White a. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1928, rev. 2024. White a. Forms: 1–3 hwit, (1 huit, 3 ȝwit, ȝwijȝt), 3–4 wit, wyt, 3–6 (7–9 dial.) whit, (4 whijt, whiȝt(e, huyt, with, wythe, wyht, quiht, quitte), 4–5 wyte, quyt(e, quite, (wyth), 4–6 qwyt(e, Sc. quhit, 4, 5–7 Sc. quhite, 4–6, 7 Sc. whyt, whyte, 4–8 Sc. quhyt, (5 hwyte, whiyt, whyȝte, why(g)th(e, wyghte, wytht, wytte, qwhyt(t)e, qwhite, qwhyet, qwyght, Sc. qwhit), 5–6 whitt(e, (whight, whyght(e, Sc. quhytt), 5–7 Sc. quhyte, 6 whytt(e, (whith, whyth, whiet, wyet, wyȝht, wight, whait, weit, weyte, Sc. vhyt, quhet), 6–7 wheat, 3– white. Comp. whiter, sup. whitest; also, with shortened vowel, 3 hwittere, -ore, -ure, 4–5 quitter, 4–6 whitter, (4 queþer, 5 qwhittar); 5 whyttest. [OE. hwít = OFris., OS. hwît, OHG. (h)wîʓ (MHG. wîʓ, G. weiss), ON. hvítr (Sw. vit, Da. hvid), Goth. hweits:—OTeut. *χwītaz.

1   The shortened form whit (now dial.) was presumably generalized from the comp. whitter or from compounds like whitbred, whitþorn, where shortening is normal.

2   The grade χwit- is represented by OFris. hwitt, (M)Du., (M)LG. wit (-tt-):—*χwittaz, prob.:—Indo-eur. *kwidnos, *kwitnos, the root of which is found also in Skr. *çvid (perf. çiçvinde) to be white, Lith. szvidùs bright, Lett. swīst to dawn, and Skr. *çvit to be bright or white, çvitrá- whitish, white, Zend spaeta white, Lith. szvintù to be bright, OSl. svētū light, svitatī to dawn.]

3   1.  Of the color of snow or milk; having that color produced by reflection, transmission or emission of all kinds of light in the proportion in which they exist in the complete visible spectrum, without sensible absorption, being thus fully luminous and devoid of any distinctive hue.

4 c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., John xx. 12. Tuoeʓe engles in huitum ʓeʓerelum.

5 c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. v. 36. Þu ne miht ænne locc ʓedon hwitne oððe blacne.

6 c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 57. Sume bereð clene cloð to watere to blechen him, þat hit beo wit. Ibid., 163. Hire chemise is smal and hwit.

7 c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2810. In hise bosum he dede his hond, Quit and al unfer he it fond.

8 1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 2786. Tueye grete dragons … Þe on was red þe oþer wyt.

9 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 17288 + 216. Two aungels … Cled in white clothez.

10 c. 1300.  Havelok, 1144. An hold with couel.

11 13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 220. Bornyste quyte was hyr uesture.

12 1340–70.  Alex. & Dind., 719. A swan swiþe whit.

13 c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 357. Þe oost sacrid, whijt & round.

14 1423.  James I., Kingis Q., xlvi. Hir goldin haire and rich atyre … couchit were with perllis quhite.

15 1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 701. Myn eyen [are] dimmed with ouermoche lokyng on the whit paper.

16 1514.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1904), 20. Oon hole sute of vestymenttes, Whight or Blake.

17 1541.  Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 135. A gowne … the one side blake and the other side whitt.

18 1556.  J. Heywood, Spider & F., lx. 5. With wheat tuskes fo[t]mde like a bore.

19 a. 1586.  Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, xxv. 1. The tender snow, of granis soft & quhyt [rhyme delyte].

20 1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. iii. 26. She … was yclad … All in a silken Camus lylly whight.

21 a. 1650.  Norgate, Miniatura (1919), 52. Insteed of abortive parchment, by some called Gilding Vellum, make use of your pure white velim.

22 1733.  Budgell, Bee, II. 924. It proving a Maiden Assizes, the Sheriffs, according to Custom, presented the Judges with white Gloves.

23 1806.  Scott, Palmer, i. The glen is white with the drifted snow.

24 1833.  Tennyson, Miller’s Dau., 130. The lanes … were white with may.

25 1860.  Tyndall, Glac., II. i. 227. White light … is made up of an infinite number of coloured rays.

26 1912.  C. N. & A. M. Williamson, Guests of Hercules, xvii. 210. The moon had full power, a round white moon that flooded the night with silver.

27   b.  Of the color of the hair or beard in old age; also transf. of the person, white-haired, hoary.

28 c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., 265/145. Hire her was hor and swiþe ȝwijȝi, as þei it were wolle.

29 1390.  Gower, Conf., I. 111. Here berdes weren hore and whyte.

30 c. 1440.  Partonope, 155. A knyghte, þe wyche hyte Nestor, Wyche for age was whyte and hore.

31 1448–9.  Metham, Amoryus & Cleopes, 1027. The qwyght herys Off sapyens.

32 1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 514. That hee is olde … his white hayres doe witnesse it.

33 1684.  Bunyan, Pilgr., II. Introd. Old Honest,… With his white hairs treading the Pilgrim’s ground.

34 1724.  Ramsay, Vision, v. His quhyt heid.

35 1887.  F. M. Crawford, Saracinesca, iii. His white hair and beard bristled about his dark face.

36   c.  In comparisons usually hyperbolical.

37   esp. as white as (or whiter than) snow, milk (cf. SNOW-WHITE, MILK-WHITE); as white as lily flower, glass, a swan (cf. SWAN-WHITE), whales bone, flour, a neap, wool, curds, and (in sense 5) a cloth, sheet, ghost.

38 c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xvii. 2. Hys rear wæron swa hwite swa snaw.

39 c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 83. Ðanne wurð ic iclansed of alle mine sennes, and hwittere ðane ani snaw.

40 c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., 85/80. A coluere … so ȝwijt so milk.

41 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 10380. Ten lambes, quitte als milk.

42 a. 1300.  K. Horn, 15 (Camb.). He was whit so þe flur [Harl. So whit so eny lylye flour].

43 c. 1330.  Syr Degarre, 15. The kynge had … A doughter as whight as whales bone.

44 c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 2081. Scheo hadde a mayden childe: Sabren hit highte, as whit as glas.

45 13[?].  Seuyn Sages (W.) 78. Faire of chere and white as swan.

46 1375.  Barbour, Bruce, VIII. 232. Hawbrekis, that war quhit as flour.

47 c. 1480.  Henryson, Fox, Wolf & Husb., 165. Quhyte as ane Neip, and round als as ane schell.

48 1508.  Dunbar, Gold. Targe, 51. A saill, als quhite as blossum vpon spray.

49 1533.  Gau, Richt Vay, 63. Giff thay be reid as purpur neuertheles yai sal be quhit as wow.

50 1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 4. Vpon a lowly Asse more white then snow, Yet she much whiter.

51 a. 1732.  Gay, Songs, New Song of New Similes, xiii. As smooth as glass, as white as curds.

52 1885.  ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, iv. I am as white as driven snow compared to some blackguards.

53   d.  In allusive or proverbial phr., chiefly in collocation with black: cf. WHITE sb. 17 d.

54 1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 436. And wherby wote men whiche is whyte if alle þinge blake were?

55 c. 1403.  Lydg., Temple of Glas, 1250. White is whitter, if it be set bi blak.

56 1546.  J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 56. Were not you as good than to say, the crow is whight.

57 1581, 1604.  [see BLACKAMOOR 1].

58 1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, I. v. § 5. I think they have striven if not to make an Ethiopian white, yet an Ægyptian to speak truth concerning his own Country.

59   2.  In looser or wider senses. a. Of a light or pale color: applied to things of various indefinite hues approaching white, esp. dull or pale shades of yellow. (See also following senses, and WHITE BREAD, WINE, etc.)

60 c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., John iv. 35. Uidete regiones quia albæ sunt … ad messem, ʓeseað ða lond forðon huito sint ʓee … to hrippe.

61 c. 1300.  Havelok, 1729. Win hwit and red, ful god plente.

62 a. 1400–50.  Bk. Curtasye, 701, in Babees Bk. A qwyte cuppe of tre.

63 c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 29. Hwyte Hony or Sugre.

64 1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 13. Sprot-barley hath a flat eare … and the cornes be very great and white.

65 1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 874. Water of the Sea … looketh Blacker when it is moued, and Whiter when it resteth.

66 1664.  Evelyn, Sylva, xix. 42. Such [osiers] as are for White-work (as they call it). Ibid. (a. 1700), Diary, 22 Oct. 1685. The canal and fish ponds, the one fed with a white, the other with a black running water.

67 1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Cordage blanc, white, or untarred cordage.

68 1846.  G. Dodd, Brit. Manuf., VI. 196. When a rope is to be used in the open air, but under cover, it is left in the ‘white’ state; that is, it is not coated with tar or any other substance.

69   (b)  spec. applied to crops of corn or grain, formerly called white corn (cf. CORN sb.1 3), which turn ‘white’ or light-colored in ripening, as distinguished from black and green crops: see CROP sb. 9. Hence transf. of land or soil adapted for such crops.

70 1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 27. The sherers of all maner of whyte corne.

71 1677.  Plot, Oxfordsh., 240. If it be of that poorest sort they call white-land, nothing is so proper as ray-grass mixt with Non-such, or Melilot Trefoil.

72 1780.  A. Young, Tour Irel., I. 197. Pease esteemed a refreshment, and enables them to have one or two crops of white corn.

73 1799.  J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 451. By the alternate changes of white and green crops.

74 1805.  Forsyth, Beauties Scot., II. 66. The soils under tillage are commonly arranged into two kinds;… light and clayey. The former is called turnip or green soil; and the latter, white soil, because it is best adapted for growing oats, wheat, and other white grains.

75 c. 1830.  Glouc. Farm Rep., 4, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. No white or corn crop should be repeated in too rapid succession.

76   b.  Of metal, or objects made of metal, of a light grey color and lustrous appearance. † Frequent in early use as an epithet of silver; hence = made or consisting of silver; also (of iron or steel armor) burnished and shining, without coloring or stain. See also white metal, money (in 11 c), rent (in 11 e), WHITE IRON.

77   Also technically applied to silver ware chased or roughened with the tool, as distinguished from burnished silver.

78 c. 1000.  Ælfric, Josh. vii. 21. Twahund entsena hwites seolfres.

79 a. 1225.  Ancr. R. 152. Read gold & hwit seoluer.

80 a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 129. Quadrentis coruen all of quyte siluyre.

81 1419.  Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 145. Et in D. de quytnayles empt. eod. temp.

82 1506.  Lincoln Wills (1914), I. 44. A whytepece with a coveryng.

83 1530.  Palsgr., 288/2. White harnesse, blanche armure.

84 1542.  Inv. Royal Wardr. (1815), 72. Quhyt Werk. Item ane greit bassing for feit wesching.

85 a. 1627.  Middleton, etc., Widow, IV. ii. A white thimble that I found i’ moon light.

86 1667.  Dryden & Dk. Newc., Sir M. Mar-all, V. Hang your white pelf.

87 1761.  Ann. Reg., Chron., 232. One of his majesty’s best suits of white armour.

88 1816.  Scott, Antiq., xi. Four white shillings and saxpence.

89 1856.  Miller, Elem. Chem., Inorg., xv. § 674. Tin is a white metal with a tinge of yellow.

90   c.  Colorless, uncolored, as glass or other transparent substance.

91 c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., XXXII. § 3. Æʓðer ʓe hwite ʓimmas ʓe reade.

92 1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. cii. (1495), M iv b/2. Those [sc. Zineth stones] that ben whyttest … ben not so precyous.

93 a. 1425.  trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc. 54. Poudre of white glasse.

94 1662.  Merrett, trans. Neri’s Art of Glass, 147. The pots wherein Enamels are made must be glased with white glass and bear the fire.

95 1738.  Deering, Catal. Stirp., 128. I observed thousands of little white Bubbles filled with Water upon it which when exhaled by the Sun, shrink away and leave a kind of Pits behind nor unlike those of the small Pox.

96 1890.  C. H. Moore, Gothic Archit., x. 303. White glass is introduced here and there [in a stained-glass window] to heighten the effect.

97   d.  Blank, not written or printed upon; † (of a document) unendorsed (cf. white-backed in 12 c).

98 1466.  Stonor Papers (Camden), I. 87. Ye seye þat ye have paid þe money: þer for y sende yowe the writte white.

99 a. 1550[?].  Faine wald I, 33, in Dunbar’s Poems (S.T.S.), 311. Gif lytil rewarde be in wryting, Bettir war leif my paper quhyle.

100 a. 1600.  Flodden Field, lviii. Sweet sonne Edward, white bookes thou make, And euer have pittye on the pore cominaltye.

101 1680, 1772, 1859.  [see white paper (b) in 11 e].

102 1683, 1770.  [see WHITE LINE 2].

103   3.  Of or in reference to the skin or complexion: Light in color, fair. (Often as a poetic term of commendation.) Now rare or Obs. exc. as in 4.

104 a. 900.  Cynewulf, Elene, 73. Wlitescyne … hwit & hiwbeorht hæleða nathwylc.

105 a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 116. Hire sulf biholden hire owune honden hwite.

106 1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 566. In þe worlde her pere nas, So ȝwit ne of suich color.

107 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 28010. Yee leuedis, wit your quite hals.

108 c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1062. Þow Mynerua þe white, Yef þow me wit my lettre to deuyse.

109 1422.  Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 225. Pyteous and merciabill man tokenyth white coloure and cleene.

110 c. 1480.  Henryson, Thre Deid Pollis, 25. O ladeis quhyt, in claithis corruscant.

111 15[?].  Dunbar, Poems, lxxxviii. 46. Fair be their wives, right lovesom, white and small.

112 1598.  Marston, Pigmal., Reactio, 35. Ye Granta’s white Nymphs come.

113 1689.  N. Lee, Princess of Cleve, II. ii. He has … a Skin so white —— and soft as Sattin with the Grain.

114   4.  Applied to those races of men (chiefly European or of European extraction) characterized by light complexion, as distinguished from black or negro, red, yellow, etc. Also transf. See also whitefellow, white slave, etc., in 11 e, and WHITE MAN.

115   Poor white folks or trash: a contemptuous name given in America by negroes to white people of no substance (1836, etc. in Thornton, Amer. Gloss.).

116 1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, II. xi. 106. Under the same line … lies a part of Peru, and of the new kingdom of Grenado, which … are very temperate Countries,… and the inhabitants are white.

117 1680.  C. Nesse, Ch. Hist., 27. The White Line, (the Posterity of Seth,) … the black Line the Cursed brood of Cain.

118 1774.  Summary Acc. Tobago 29. The white inhabitants … do not exceed seven hundred. The negroes, amounting to about twelve thousand, are kept in awe by an active militia.

119 1852.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxiii. He had white blood in his veins.

120 1856.  Olmsted, Slave States, 84. I have been … told that the poor white people, meaning those, I suppose, who bring nothing to market to exchange for money but their labor,… are worse off in almost all respects than the slaves.

121 1865.  Whittier, Lesson & our Duty, Prose Wks. 1889, VII. 151. The negro is to be left powerless in the hands of the ‘White trash,’ who hate him with a bitter hatred.

122 1870.  Kingsley, At Last, xvi. Exclusive sugar cultivation had put a premium on unskilled slave-labour, to the disadvantage of skilled white-labour.

123 1896.  Baden-Powell, Matabele Campaign, xviii. The white power of South Africa.

124 1921.  Round Table, March, 312. The adoption of the White Australia policy—the determination to keep Australia white, a home for European races, is the first exercise of the national conscience.

125   b.  slang or colloq. (by extension from WHITE MAN 2 b; orig. U.S.) Honorable; square-dealing. Also as adv.

126 1877.  Besant & Rice, Golden Butterfly, xviii. A good fellow is Rayner; as white a man as I ever knew.

127 1890.  Century Mag., Feb., 523/2. There ain’t a whiter man than Laramie Jack from the Wind River Mountains down to Santa Fe.

128 1913.  Edith Wharton, Cust. Country, ix. Well—this is white of you. Ibid., xviii. I meant to act white by you.

129   5.  † a. In early use app. applied to illness marked by pallor. Obs. b. Pale, pallid, esp. from fear or other emotion. (Often in hyperbolical phr. as white as a sheet.) Also in allusive phrases expressing cowardice (cf. WHITE-LIVER, -LIVERED), and transf. (as in white rage, terror).

130   Phr. To bleed white: (a) intr. (hyperbolically) to shed colorless blood (rare); (b) trans. to drain completely of resources.

131 c. 1403.  Clanvowe, Cuckow & Night., 41. I am so shaken with the fevers whyte, Of al this May yet slepte I but a lyte.

132 1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. 2369. While he laie þus in his þrowes white.

133 a. 1508.  Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 426. Than lay I furtgh my bright buke on breid on my knee … And drawis my clok forthwart our my face quhit.

134 1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 643. Didst thou not marke my face, was it not white? Sawest thou not signes of feare lurke in mine eye? Ibid. (1596), Merch. V., III. ii. 86. How manie cowards … weare … The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars, Who inward searcht, haue lyuers white as milke. Ibid. (1605), Macb., II. ii. 65. I shame To weare a Heart so white.

135 1626.  Bp. Hall, Contempl., XIII. David & Gol. Now wee see … those, which haue giuen good proofes of magnanimitie, at other times, haue bewrayed white liuers.

136 1753.  Jane Collier, Art Torment., I. ii. 46. She … looks as white as a cloth.

137 1799.  Southey, Bp. Hatto, 35. He had a countenance white with alarm.

138 1841.  S. Warren, Ten Thou., I. x. He hurried down … white with rage.

139 1854.  Dickens, Hard T., I. ii. His skin was so unwholesomely deficient in the natural tinge, that he looked as though, if he were cut, he would bleed white.

140 1860.  Shirley Brooks, Gordian Knot, ii. The most gentlemanly millionaire of them all has since been transported, and another is in white terror of a similar destiny.

141 1866.  G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxxii. She is as white as a sheet.

142 1885.  ‘F. Anstey,’ Tinted Venus, vi. He was in a white rage.

143 1897.  Hall Caine, Christian, III. xii. The man … turned white as a ghost.

144   6.  a. Clothed or arrayed in white; spec. belonging to an ecclesiastical order distinguished by wearing a white habit (see also White Canons s.v. CANON2 1, and WHITE FRIAR, WHITE MONK).

145   White ball: a ball at which all the ladies are dressed in white.

146 a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 1576. Ha seh sitten þis meiden mid monie hwite wurðliche men.

147 a. 1400.  Prymer (1891), 22. The white [L. candidatus] oost of martires.

148 c. 1400.  Brut, 314. Þere aros anoþer cumpanye of diuers nacions þat was called ‘þe white companye,’ þe whiche, in þe parties & cuntre of Lumbardye, dede myche sorwe.

149 c. 1420.  Sir Amadace (Camden), xxxviii. Quod the quite knyȝte ‘Quat mon is this?’

150 c. 1450.  Holland, Howlat, 178. The Se Mawis war monkis, the blak and the quhyte.

151 1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, XIII. ix. 623. He came to a whyte Abbay.

152 1598.  Shaks., Merry W., V. v. 41. Fairies blacke, gray, greene, and white.

153 1659.  in Morris, Troubles Cath. Foref. (1872), I. vi. 316. Seventy-two … were Nuns of the Choir, the rest White Sisters and Lay-sisters.

154 1895.  E. M. Hewitt, in Pall Mall Mag., Sept., 140. A month after Mamie’s arrival Lidian gave a ‘white ball’ in her honour.

155 1903.  P. J. Chandlery, Pilgr.-Walks Rome, 126. They are like nuns, and are affiliated to the Olivetans, or white Benedictines.

156   b.  From the 17th century white has been specially associated with royalist and legitimist causes (e.g., the white flag of the Bourbons), and hence in recent times white has been applied to certain constitutional or anti-revolutionary parties and the policy for which they stand. (See WHITE sb. 19, and cf. RED a. 9 b.)

157 1749.  J. Ray, Compl. Hist. Reb., 331. She got together all her Clan, and marched at their Head (with a white Cockade, &c.) and presented them to the Mock Prince. Ibid., 341. The Rebel Army were assembled with their White Flags displayed.

158 a. 1784.  Johnson, in Boswell, an. 1763, note. Boswell, in the year 1745,… wore a white cockade, and prayed for King James.

159 1848.  Redhead, Fr. Rev., II. 302. In suppressing the tricolour, and substituting in its stead the white flag, it inflicted a wound upon the sensibility of the meanest soldier.

160 1849.  W. C. Taylor, House of Orleans, III. 222. He had been one of the first to raise the White Flag in 1814; he had levied a regiment of Royalists during the hundred days.

161 1879.  J. Macdonell, France since 1st Empire, 117. The French ministers could show clemency at Paris, but they were not so well able to keep down the fury of the Royalists in the provinces. Thus was the Red Terror succeeded by the White.

162 1903.  Daily Chron., 20 June, 3/2. His position is that known in Italy as ‘White,’ or constitutional, as compared with the clerical ‘Blacks’ and the republican ‘Reds.’

163 1918.  Times, 9 April, 6/4. (Finland) Germany has secured a strong hold on the gratitude of ‘White’ public opinion, Ibid. The White Army as a whole is overwhelmingly pro-German.

164   7.  fig. Morally or spiritually pure or stainless; spotless, unstained, innocent.

165 971.  Blickl. Hom., 147. Hwylc is of us Drihten þæt hæbbe swa hwite saule swa þeos haliʓe Marie?

166 a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 324. Vor euere so heo [sc. the soul] is hwitture, so þe fulðe is schenre.

167 c. 1450.  Capgrave, Life St. Aug., xv. Whech seruauntis our Lord God had bront fro þe grete blaknesse of synne on-to þe fair white vertuous lyuyng.

168 1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., III. ii. 198. Back wounding calumnie The whitest vertue strikes.

169 1608.  Bp. Hall, Char., I. 21. Hee hath white hands, and a cleane soule.

170 1616.  B. Jonson, Epigr., xciii. I doe not know a whiter soule.

171 1645.  G. Daniel, Scattered Fancies, xxxiii. Dut Danger onlie gvilt attends; I bring White Thoughts.

172 1737.  Pope, Hor. Epist., II. i. 216. In our own [days] … No whiter page than Addison remains.

173 1859.  Hawthorne, Marble Faun, xxiii. There can be no harm to my white Hilda in one parting kiss.

174 1862.  Trollope, Orley F., xxxvi. It is I whose duty it is to see that your name be made white again.

175   b.  Free from malignity or evil intent; beneficent, innocent, harmless, esp. as opposed to something characterized as black (cf. BLACK a. 8, 9): chiefly in phr. white lie (see LIE sb.1 1 b), white magic (MAGIC sb. 1 b; cf. BLACK ART); see also white paternoster s.v. PATERNOSTER 2, and WHITE WITCH.

176 1651.  C. Cartwright, Cert. Relig., III. 36. He did not know whether his admonisher were black or white … an evill or a good spirit.

177 1655.  Fuller, Ch. Hist., II. v. § 12. He made his Harp … make musick of it self; which no White Art could perform.

178 1718.  Bp. Hutchinson, Witchcraft, ii. 26. A Teacher of the White Magic, that pretends to deal only with Good Angels.

179 1749–50.  Richardson, in Mrs. Barbauld, Corr. (1804), IV. 316. Don’t you think … that I have reason to exclaim against white fibs?

180 1828.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. Admiral on Shore. Julia … asserted her female privilege of white-lying, and declared [etc.].

181 1855.  Kingsley, Westw. Ho! iv. They be mortal feared of witches,… and mortal hard on ’em, even on a pure body like me, that doth a bit in the white way.

182 1914.  Sir E. Shackleton, in Boston Globe, 29 Oct., 18/6. I send you my last cable as we start for the Antarctic. We are leaving now to carry on our white warfare.

183   8.  (Chiefly of times and seasons) Propitious, favorable; auspicious, fortunate, happy. Now rare.

184 1629.  Shirley, Grateful Serv., II. i. Till this white houre, these walles were neuer proud, T’inclose a guest.

185 1638–56.  Cowley, Davideis, II. 830. Thy Fate’s all white.

186 1660.  Dryden, Astræa Redux, 292. And now times whiter Series is begun.

187 1728.  Ramsay, Bonny Christy, iv. He wisely this white Minute took, And flang his Arms about her.

188 1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones, VIII. xi. What is called by Schoolboys Black Monday, was to me the whitest in the whole Year.

189 1830.  Lytton, P. Clifford, xxix. I will not even press you to appoint that day, which to me will be the whitest of my life.

190 1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvii. IV. 2. That was one of the few white days of a life, beneficent indeed … but far from happy.

191   † 9.  Highly prized, precious; dear, beloved, favorite, ‘pet’; ‘darling.’ Often as a vague term of endearment. (See also white son in 11 e, and WHITE BOY.) Obs.

192 c. 1425.  Non-Cycle Myst. Plays (1909), 33. Take vp Isaac, þi son so whyte.

193 c. 1537.  in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. III. 126. Master Pole … entred secretly in to a Monasterye … called Seynt Justyns, wheras he is ther wyte God and they his blacke angells.

194 1602.  2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., II. vi. I shall bee his little roague, and his white villaine for a whole weeke after.

195 1634.  Heywood, Lanc. Witches, I. i. Wks. 1874, IV. 184. A merry song now mother, and thou shalt be my white girle.

196 1646.  Extr. Kirk-Session Rec. Dunfermline (1865), 17. Jonet Wely … had slandered grissell walwood spouse to Jon alisone, wright, calling hir white bird.

197 1647.  Trapp, Comm. Matt. xiv. 3. If Iohn touch Herods white sin … Iohn must to prison.

198   † 10.  Fair-seeming, specious, plausible. Obs.

199 c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, III. 901. I … feffe hym with a fewe wordes whyte. Ibid., 1567. For alle youre wordes whyte.

200 1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, III. 4272. Hir wordis white, softe, & blaundyshynge, Wer meynt with feynyng & with flaterie.

201 c. 1480.  Henryson, Cock & Fox, 205. Flatteraris with plesand wordis quhyle.

202 1513.  Douglas, Æneis, I. xi. 34. The schyning vissage of the god Cupyte, And his dissemelit slekit wordis quhyte.

203 1612.  Sir J. Davies, Why Ireland, etc., 93. The faire and white promises of Lewes the 11.

204 1613.  Chapman, Rev. Bussy d’Ambois, V. i. This bloud I shed, is to saue the bloud Of many thousands. Guise. That’s your white pretext.

205 1721.  Kelly, Sc. Prov., 158. The Scots call Flatteries Whitings, and Flatterers white People.

206 1825.  Jamieson, White-Wind, flattery, wheedling; a cant term.

207   11.  Special collocations. a. In names of species or varieties of animals distinguished by their white color or coloring: as white ant, bear, fox, heron, herring, pelican, perch, shark, stork, trout, wagtail, whale, for which see the sbs.; also white-bird. (a) a name for the spotted flycatcher; (b) see quot. 1875; white game [GAME sb. 11], grouse = while partridge; white grub, the larva of the cockchafer or other scarabæid; white mouse (see e below); white partridge ? Obs., the ptarmigan; white slipper (limpet), snail (see quots.); white worm = white grub; see also WHITEBAIT, WHITEFISH, etc. b. In names of plants distinguished by white flowers or other parts, light-colored bark, wood, root, fruit, seed, etc.; also applied to such flowers, wood, etc.: as white beech, beet, bind, bine, birch, broom, cedar, clover, currant, dead-nettle, elm, grape, hellebore, honeysuckle, horehound, jasmine, lilac, mustard, oak, oats, peas, pepper, pine, poplar, raspberry, rot, rye, sanders, willow (see the sbs.); also white ash, (a) a species or variety of ash with light-colored wood; hence (colloq.) an oar; also attrib. (jocular) white-ash breeze, the impetus of the oar; (b) a S. African ornamental tree with white flowers, Platylophus trifoliatus, the white alder (ALDER sb.1 3); † white-bush = WHITETHORN; white corn (see 2 a b); white grass, (a) Holcus lanatus; (b) American species of Leersia, esp. L. virginica; † white plum. (a) = WHEAT-PLUM; (b) a plum of Barbados having whitish bark; white-tree, a name for different trees having light-colored wood; esp. Melaleuca Leucodendron of Australia and the Malay archipelago; white vine, (a) the common bryony, Bryonia dioica; (b) traveller’s-joy, Clematis Vitalba; white wheat, wheat with white or light-colored grain; white wood, (a) the alburnum, or lighter-colored outer wood of a tree; (b) any non-resinous wood. c. In names of minerals, and of chemical or other products, of a white color: as white amber, antimony, arsenic, copper, dammar, enamel, feldspar, (iron) pyrites, precipitale, salt, schorl, soap, tellurium, tin, tombac, vitriol, war, for which see the sbs.; also white ash, refined soda-ash as distinct from the crude black ash (ASH sb.2 2); white brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, containing a large proportion of the latter; white brick, app. Bath brick; white bronze, any light-colored bronze; white damp [DAMP sb.1 1 b], carbonic oxide as occurring in coal-mines; white leather (see LEATHER sb. 1 and WHITLEATHER); white lights Obs. exc. dial., candles; white metal, a name for various alloys of a light grey color (also attrib.); white money, silver money, silver coins; white nickel, a name for CHLOANTHITE or other native nickel arsenide; † white powder, a supposed kind of gunpowder exploding without noise; white rock, a name applied to intrusive basaltic rocks, altered to a light color, occurring in coal-measures; white-row (see quot.); white rubber, (a) caoutchouc whitened by admixture of a pigment; (b) the light-colored caoutchouc obtained from the white-rubber vine (Landolphia owariensis); † white straits (see quots. and STRAIT sb. 9); white trap = white rock; † white wire, iron wire coated with tin. d. In names of bodily parts or structures, and of diseases or abnormal bodily conditions, characterized by white color: as white blood, blood with an excess of white corpuscles, as in leuchæmia; † white bone, app. the costal cartilages; white corpuscle, a colorless blood-corpuscle, a leucocyte; white flood, leucorrhœa; white flux (see e below); white gangrene, a form of gangrene in which the affected parts become whitish; white haw, an affection of the eye (see HAW sb.3); white jaundice (see JAUNDICE sb. 1 b); white matter, the fibrous matter of the brain and spinal cord, as distinct from the grey matter; white softening, a variety of softening of the brain (see quot. 1873); white swelling (see SWELLING vbl. sb. 2); white (fibrous) tissue, white connective tissue, as distinct from yellow tissue (YELLOW a. C. 1 e).

208 1699.  Dampier, Voy., 127. Abundance of Ants of several sorts, and Woodlice, called by the English in the East Indies *White Ants.

209 1849.  Eastwick, Dry Leaves, 86. The never-to-be-sufficiently execrated white ants, who, if they had their will, would reduce all created things to impalpable dust.

210 1801.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., II. 315. The Leucoryx or *White Antelope.

211 1820.  T. Green, Univ. Herbal, II. 856/2. Fraxinus Americana, American Ash-tree.—There are several varieties of this, *White Ash, Red Ash, Black Ash, &c.

212 1851.  H. Melville, Whale, lxxxi. This clumsy lubber was striving to free his white ash.

213 1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., White-ash (Penn.). See Coal.

214 1882.  Garden, 23 Sept., 273/1. F. americana, the white Ash of the United States, may be taken as the type of most of the American kinds.

215 1906.  Kipling, Puck of Pook’s Hill, 101.        So we must wake the white-ash breeze,   Let fall for Stavanger!   A long pull for Stavanger!

216 1892.  Labour Commission Gloss., *White Ash Finishers, men in the chemical industry … engaged upon the manufacture of soda ash … from salts derived from black ash.

217 1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage, VIII. iii. 620. There were *white Beares, and stagges farre greater then ours.

218 1852.  Seidel, Organ, 169. The levers by which the tongues are kept upon the beaks are generally made of *white beech.

219 1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 744. There is only one species of this plant [sc. hop] in cultivation, but which has several varieties, as the red-bind, the green-bind, the *white-bind, etc.

220 1875.  Melliss, St. Helena, 98. G[ygis] candida, Wagl.—*White-bird. One of the most abundant sea-birds in the Island.

221 1843.  R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., vii. 85. Abstracting [by blister] a considerable portion of *white blood from the system.

222 1863.  W. Aitken, Sci. & Pract. Med. (ed. 2), II. 270. White-cell blood, or White blood—Leucocythæmia.

223 1511.  Mem. Ripon (Surtees), I. 314. Quendam N. Wallez felonice percussit cum uno le dager in pectore super le *wythbone.

224 1538.  Bury Wills (Camden), 136. One lytle pot of *whyte brasse.

225 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech.

226 1538.  Elyot, Dict., Leucantha, *white bryer.

227 a. 1756.  Eliza Haywood, New Present for Maid (1771), 252. Rubbing … with scouring paper, rotten-stone, or *white-brick.

228 1884.  C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. III. 28/1. This new kind of *‘white bronze’ is not to be confounded with the alloy used in America under the same name … which consists principally of zinc.

229 1882.  Garden, 3 June, 384/1. The *white Broom and a sulphur-coloured Cytisus with flowers as large as those of the common Broom are very fine.

230 1676.  M. Cook, Forrest-Trees, xxxii. 97. If you would make a Fence of one particular sort of Wood, the very best is your *White-bush, or White-thorn.

231 1781–2.  T. Jefferson, Notes Virginia (1787), 62. *White cedar, Cupressus Thyoides.

232 1847.  Leichhardt, Jrnl., iii. 60. The white cedar (Melia Azedarach) grows also along the Zamia Creek.

233 1686.  Plot, Staffordsh., 122. *White-clay, so called it seems though of a blewish colour, and used for making yellow-colour’d ware.

234 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *White Copper, an alloy forming an imitation of silver.

235 1866, 1898.  *White corpuscles [see LEUCOCYTOSIS, LEUCOCYTE].

236 1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxxi. 107. The fifth … may be … called … *white Crowfoote, & water Crowfoote. Ibid., II. xxviii. 180 [see WATER-LILY].

237 1866.  Treas. Bot., *White dammer.

238 1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., *White-damp, a poisonous gas sometimes (more rarely than fire-damp or choke-damp, etc.), encountered in coal mines.

239 1770.  J. R. Forster, trans. Kalm’s Trav. N. Amer., I. 67. Ulmus Americana, the *white elm.

240 1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. 67. To make *white enamel, a hundred parts of lead and thirty of tin are generally calcined … and … mixed with a hundred parts of sand and twenty of potash:… the result is a milky white opake glass, called White Enamel.

241 1839.  De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. vi. 180. Plates of black mica and crystals of *white felspar.

242 1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, I. lix. 86. Wilde Tansie … preuayleth … agaynst the *white floud, or issue of floures.

243 1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), III. 333. The fur of the *white fox is held in no great estimation.

244 1678.  Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 176. The *white Game. erroneously called the white Partridge, Lagopus avis.

245 1886.  Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., III. 300/2 *‘White’ Gangrene seems to be simply a moist gangrene … in which there is a serous exudate.

246 1798.  Nemnich, Polygl.-Lex., II. 936. *White gold. The platina.

247 1780.  A. Young, Tour Irel., I. 382. Rye grass (lolium perenne) and *white grass (holcus lanatus) do well.

248 1891.  Cent. Dict., s.v. Leersia, Three species occur in the United States, and are known as white-grass, especially L. Virginica.

249 1797.  Bewick, British Birds, I. 303. *White Grouse.

250 a. 1817.  T. Dwight, Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821), I. 77. The *white-grub has … extensively injured meadows and pastures.

251 1551.  Turner, Herbal, I. I v. The leues also broken in oyle are good for the *whyte hawe, or the perle in the eye.

252 1857.  Miller, Elem. Chem., Org. (1862), i. § 3. 61. Blue indigo, under the combined action of protoxide of iron and alkalies, becomes converted into *white indigo.

253 1896.  Chester, Dict. Names Min., *White iron ore, an early name for siderite. Ibid., White iron pyrites, a popular name for marcasite.

254 1526.  in Househ. Ord. (1790), 162. One torch, one pricket, two sises, one pound of *white lights, ten talshides, eight faggotts. Ibid. (1610), 335. Halfe a pounde of white lightes … per diem.

255 1731.  Miller, Gard. Dict., 5 A b. The *White Lilac, or Pipe-Tree.

256 1882.  Garden, 6 May, 317/2. A brass bowl holds a large bunch of white Lilac with its own pale green leafage.

257 c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 525/2. *Whyte marbulle, carnium.

258 1850.  Burke, Landed Gentry, III. 27/2. The splendid mausoleum erected over the ashes of St. John-Isajah, by his family, was still in good preservation, and was magnificently sculptured in white marble.

259 1839–47.  Todd’s Cycl. Anat., III. 695. A convolution [of the brain] consists of a fold of grey matter, enclosing a process of *white or fibrous matter.

260 1869.  Huxley, Elem. Physiol. (ed. 3), vi. 299. In the medulla oblongata,… [as] in the spinal cord … the white matter is external, and the grey internal. But, in the cerebellum and cerebral hemispheres, the grey matter is external and the white internal.

261 1613.  in Papers rel. Scots in Poland (1915), 71. A *white metal cup.

262 1710.  N. Blundell, Diary (1895), 86. We went to see ym make White-Mettle Muggs.

263 1879.  H. Phillips, Addit. Notes upon Coins, 8. A number of medals in white metal and copper.

264 1884.  C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. III. 40/2. The term ‘white metal’ is applied to all alloys in which zinc, tin, or lead is in sufficient proportion to impart a white colour.

265 1482.  Cely Papers (Camden), 116. The goldys and *whyte mony … as they were corrant.

266 1593.  Greene, 3rd Pt. Art Cony Catching, C 3. There was seuen pound in Golde, beside thirty shillings and odde white money.

267 1611.  Cotgr., s.v. Blanc, Monnoye blanche, white money; coyne of brasse, or copper, siluered ouer.

268 1696.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3162/4. Where all Persons may be Accommodated with any of their sorts for white Money, either Half-Crowns, Shillings, or Sixpences.

269 a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 9 March 1664. The fine new mill’d coin both of white money and guineas.

270 1809.  Bawdwen, Domesday Bk., 405. Rutland pays to the King one hundred and fifty pounds white money.

271 1820.  Blackw. Mag., May, 158. My hand has nae been crossed with white money but ance these seven blessed days.

272 1868.  Dana, Min. (ed. 5), 70. Chloanthite;… *White Nickel.

273 1896.  Chester, Dict. Names Min., 287. White nickel. A syn. of both rammelsbergite and chloanthite.

274 1770.  J. R. Forster, trans. Kalm’s Trav. N. Amer., I. 65. Quercus alba, the *white oak.

275 1721.  Bailey, *White oakham, a sort of Tow or Flax to drive into the Seams of Ships.

276 1674.  trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, 138. No bird abounds there more then the *white Partridge.

277 1678.  [see white game].

278 1747.  G. Edwards, Nat. Hist. Birds, II. 72.

279 1844.  Amer. Jrnl. Sci., XLVII. 58. Labrax mucronatus, Cuv., *White Perch, common in Stratford [CT].

280 1530.  Palsgr., 288/2. *White plome, prune blanche.

281 1696.  Plukenet, Almagestum, Opera 1769, II. 306. Prunus Sylvestris cortice albicante,… White Plumme Barbadensibus dicta.

282 1613.  Beaum. & Fl., Honest Man’s Fort., II. i. That you were kil’d with a Pistoll charg’d with *white Powder.

283 1689.  N. Lee, Princess of Cleve, II. ii. A Secret Lover’s like a Gun charg’d with white Powder, does Execution but makes no noise.

284 1887.  Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., IV. 743/2. Mercurammonic Chloride, NH2HgCl. This salt, commonly known as *white precipitate, is officinal in the U.S.

285 1769.  Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 213. To make *White Raspberry Jam.

286 1885.  Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., IV. viii. § 2. 569. Microscopical examination shows that this *‘white-rock’ or ‘white-trap’ is merely an altered form of some diabasic or basaltic rock.

287 1712.  Phil. Trans., XXVII. 542. A blewish Bat, in which the following Iron-Stone lyes, called the *White-Row. Ibid. A hard blackish Iron Oar, lying in small Nodules, having between them a White Substance; and from thence by the Miners called the White-Row-Grains.

288 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *White-rubber. Caoutchouc mixed with such quantity of any white pigment [so] as to give a dead white color to it.

289 1887.  Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 90. The white-rubber vine … grows in profusion in this part of the country.

290 1859.  P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Inst. (1860), 203. The *White Slipper [limpet] is known … by its shaggy light-green skin.

291 1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 54. *White snailes be yll for shepe in pastures.

292 1881.  E. Ingersoll, Oyster-Industry, 250. White-snails.—Small species of mollusks noxious to the oyster-beds, particularly Urosalpinx and Natica.

293 1854.  *White softening [see SOFTENING vbl. sb. 1 b].

294 1873.  T. H. Green, Introd. Pathol., 41. White Softening … is [mostly] a chronic condition, dependent upon disease of the capillaries and small arteries, which interferes with the circulation…. There is no hyperæmia, and the colour either resembles that of healthy brain tissue, or is an opaque dirty white.

295 1792.  Pennant, Arctic Zool., II. 157. *White Stork…. primaries black: the rest of the plumage white.

296 1513.  Act 5 Hen. VIII., c. 2. Where … Clothes called *White Straytes be … made within the seid Countie [of Devon].

297 1672.  Manley, Cowell’s Interpr., White Straits, a kind of course Cloth made in Devonshire, about a yard and half a quarter broad, raw.

298 c. 1430.  Two Cookery-bks., 7. Take *whyte sugre an caste þer-to.

299 1562.  Turner, Herbal, II. 106. Take the water & put white sugar vnto it.

300 1772.  D. Macbride, Meth. Introd. Physic, 194. Watery tumour of a joint, usually termed *White-swelling.

301 1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 185. *White tinne, that is molten into mettall.

302 1843.  R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xxviii. 361. The vitality of the *white tissues is low.

303 1863.  Bates, Nat. Amazons, ii. (1864), 38. Other grand forest-trees … were the Moira-tinga (the *White or King tree)—probably the same as, or allied to, the Mora Excelsa … in British Guiana [etc.].

304 1866.  Treas. Bot., White-tree, Melaleuca Leucadendron.

305 c. 1640.  J. Smyth, Hund. Berkeley (1885), 319. The Salmon, *wheat trout or suen.

306 1542.  Elyot, Dict., Amomum,… the leaues be lyke to the leaues of Withwynde or *whyte vyne.

307 1598.  [see BRYONY 1].

308 1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 188. Burne them with twigs of white vines.

309 1866.  Treas. Bot., 1217/1. Vine, White, Clematis Vitalba.

310 1545.  *White wax [see WAX sb.1 2 c].

311 1567.  Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 176. With bullis of leid, quhyte wax and reid, And vther quhylis with grene.

312 1815.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., x. (1818), I. 329. The wax (called Pe-la, white wax, because so by nature,) begins to appear about the middle of June.

313 1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 34. *Whyte wheate is lyke polerde wheate … but it hath anis, and … wyll make white breed; and in Essex they call flaxen wheate whyte wheate.

314 1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 540. Among the numerous varieties of … wheat, the white and the red are the most esteemed in general.

315 1463–4.  Rolls Parlt., V. 507/1. Cardes for Wolle, or *Whitewyre.

316 1587.  Mascall, Cattle, Hogges (1596), 374. Some doe ring them [sc. hogs] with red wyar … Others doe put rings of yron, some with horse nailes or strong white wyar, in the groine of their snoutes.

317 1678.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1303/1. It is Enacted … That no Iron Threed (commonly called White Wyer) nor Cards for Wooll, nor Card-Wyer, nor Iron-Wyer for making of Wooll-Cards, shall be Imported.

318 1765.  Newton (Lincs.) Enclosure Act, 13. Ash or other *white wood rails.

319 1812.  P. Graham, Agric. Surv. Stirling., 40. The oaks are almost entire; the white wood, as it is called, or the outermost circles of the tree, only are decayed.

320 1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 348. The workman breaks these pieces of pots on his anvil, and mixes the pieces with charcoal of white wood.

321 1883.  J. G. Wood, in Longman’s Mag., Dec., 169. Especially does it wage war against the terrible larva of the cockchafer, called, par excellence, the Grub, and sometimes known as the *White Worm.

322   e.  Miscellaneous: white ale, a Devonshire drink made of ale with flour, milk, and other ingredients (see Eng. Dial. Dict.); white baker, † (a) a baker of white bread (also as one word); (b) a name for the spotted flycatcher; white bath, (a) an emulsion of oil and alkaline carbonates used in dyeing; (b) a name for white-flowered species of Trillium; white bonnet [BONNET sb. 8], a fictitious bidder at an auction; white book [trans. med.L. liber albus; cf. ALBUM], a book of official records or reports bound in white; † white broth, some kind of broth of a white or light color (see also BROTH sb. 3); white coal (see quot. 1913); † white colo(u)rs = white flag (a); white cooper (see COOPER sb.1 1); white death [after black death], a name for tuberculosis (? as specially a disease of white men); white ensign (see ENSIGN sb. 5); whitefellow, applied by Australian natives to a white man, in contradistinction to blackfellow; white flag, (a) a flag of a white color displayed in token of peaceful or friendly intention, desire for parley (= flag of truce, FLAG sb.4 1 b), or surrender; (b) the national flag of France before the Revolution (see 6 b); white flux, (a) leucorrhœa; (b) see FLUX sb. 11, quot. 1826; † white-folding, some kind of cloth; white hass, hawse, Sc. = white pudding (a); white hen, fig. in proverbial phr. a white hen’s chick, etc., applied to a fortunate person or thing (cf. sense 8); White House, popular name for the official residence of the President of the United States at Washington; white joint (see quot.); † white joke, name of some dance; white leach (see LEACH sb.1 2); white letter, Printing [LETTER sb.1 2 b], an occasional name for the (now) ordinary or ‘roman’ style of type, as distinct from BLACK-LETTER; white lie, (a) see 7 b and LIE sb.1 1 b; (b) see quot.; white-loose (see quot.); † white mark = WHITE sb. 6; white mass (see quot.); † White Moors, a nickname for the Genoese; white mouse, (a) an albino variety or fancy breed of the common house mouse; (b) a name for the collared lemming, Cuniculus torquatus, also called show-mouse; (c) fig. applied to a person of mean or despicable character; white night (trans. F. nuit blanche), a sleepless night; white note, Mus. a note with an open head, as a semibreve or minim (opp. to black note); white paper, (a) paper of a white color (also fig.); (b) techn. blank paper, not written or printed upon; (c) an official document printed on white paper; white post (Paper-making), see POST sb.5 1; white pudding, (a) a kind of sausage made of oatmeal and suet (cf. BLACK PUDDING and PUDDING sb. 1); (b) ‘a pudding made of milk, eggs, flour, and butter’ (Cent. Dict.); white rent (obs. exc. Hist.), rent payable in silver money (see sense 2 b, and cf. BLACK MAIL 3); spec. in Devon and Cornwall, a rent or duty of eight pence a year payable by every tinner to the Duke of Cornwall; white rod = WHITE STAFF; white rose, the emblem, and hence (with capitals) a designation, of the House of York in the Wars of the Roses (see ROSE sb. 6); also adopted by the Jacobites in the 18th c.; White Russian, (a) a member of that branch of the Russian stock inhabiting the western part of Russia; (b) the dialect of Russian used by these; white scourge, tuberculosis (cf. white death above); white-sewing = while-seam (SEAM sb.1 9); white sheet (see SHEET sb.1 1 b); white slave, a white person (sense 4) who is, or is treated like, a slave (cf. SLAVE sb. 3); so white slaver, white slavery (spec. in reference to prostitution); † white son, a beloved or favorite son; a boy or man who is specially favored or petted (see 9); white squadron, one of the three squadrons into which the Royal Navy was formerly divided; white squall (see SQUALL sb.3 1 c); white steep, a process, or liquor, used in bleaching (see STEEP sb.1 1, 4, and cf. grey steep s.v. GREY a. 8); white stone, in prov. phr. to mark with a white stone, to reckon as specially fortunate or happy (in allusion to the use of a white stone among the ancients as a memorial of a fortunate event); White Sunday, an etymologizing modification of WHIT SUNDAY; white ware, white goods or stuff, esp. white earthenware; white window, a stained-glass window in grisaille (see GRISAILLE); white wings fig., sails; † white woman, name for a ‘female’ ingredient in alchemy.

323 1743.  London & Country Brewer, III. 195. Devonshire *White-Ale. About 60 years ago this Drink was invented at or near … Plymouth. It is brewed from pale Malt.

324 1806.  Wolcot (P. Pindar), Tristia, Wks. 1812, V. 341. Your birthplace Dodbrook deign’d to bless Famed for white ale.

325 1813.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 390. The brewing of a liquor called white ale, is almost exclusively confined to the neighbourhood of Kingsbridge.

326 1879.  N. & Q., 5th Ser. XI. 193/2.

327 1568.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 325. No baker, be he *white baker or browne baker.

328 1633.  Stow’s Surv., 624. The Company of White-Bakers … were a Company of this City in the first yeere of Edward the second.

329 1725.  Lond. Gaz., No. 6379/5. Samuel Fryer,… Whitebaker.

330 1862.  Johns, Brit. Birds, 625. White Baker, the Spotted Flycatcher.

331 1857.  Miller, Elem. Chem., Org. (1862), xi. § 2. 775. In this condition it [sc. the skin] is ready for the operation of tawing, or passing through the *white bath.

332 1891.  Cent. Dict., s.v. Trillium, The white species [are known] as wake-robin, white bath, birthroot.

333 1735.  in R. Bell, Treat. Coneyance Land (1815), 168. This too common practice of employing *white-bonnets at roups was a manifest cheat. Ibid. (1815). What is commonly called a white bonnet, that is, a person employed by the seller to raise the price, without any intention of buying for himself.

334 1866.  Carlyle, Remin. (1881), I. 205. Hazlitt … was at the Fonthill Abbey sale … ‘hired to attend as a white bonnet there,’ said he with a laugh.

335 1437.  Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 294. The *Whit Boke.

336 1891.  Times, 4 Feb., 5/3. Another White book on East African affairs has been presented to the Reichstag.

337 1895.  Law Times, C. 3/1. The judge and Master Macdonell hunted through the White Book, and unearthed a rule sufficiently elastic.

338 1911.  B. Nightingale, Ejected of 1662, II. 1027. The White Book of Preston gives the following.

339 1606.  Dekker, Seven Deadly Sins, D. Heere and there (like a Prune in *While-broth) is stucke a spruice, but a meere prating vnpractised Lawyers Clarke all in blacke.

340 1691.  Mrs. D’Anvers, Academia, 8. So she … In White-broath, and Canary steeps him.

341 1913.  Weston & Crew, Pitman’s Dict. Econ. & Banking Terms, 149. *White Coal, a fanciful name given to a glacier in so far as it is a reservoir of force.

342 1916.  Edin. Rev., Oct., 397. Envying the Italians the clear atmosphere their towns are able to enjoy through the use of ‘white coal’ in place of black.

343 1676.  North’s Plutarch, Add. Lives, 84. Sebastian … commanded one of his souldiers to hold up the *white colours at his Spears-end, in token of his surrendring.

344 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. vii. 317/2. The *White Cooper and Barrel Cooper … are two distinct Trades.

345 1837.  Whittock, etc., Bk. Trades (1842), 162 (Cooper). The White-cooper makes all the wooden vessels required in household concerns, dairies, or private breweries.

346 1901.  Munsey’s Mag., XXV. 710/1. The *‘white death,’ as this most fatal disease is called, does not seem to horrify us as it should.

347 1879.  Queen’s Reg. H.M. Naval Service, 19. All Her Majesty’s Ships of War in Commission shall bear a *White Ensign.

348 1870.  J. O. Tucker, Mute, 52. The natives, believing him to be the spirit of their deceased king, welcomed him with every demonstration of joy; hence the well known expression ‘Go down blackfellow, come up *whitefellow.’

349 1600.  Holland, Livy, XXX. 765. There met him a ship of the Carthaginians, garnished with … *white flags of peace.

350 1695.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3101/2. The Enemy hung out a White Flag, and desired a Parley.

351 1815.  Ann. Reg., Gen. Hist., 129. A white flag was hung out as a signal that the troops … had surrendered.

352 1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 83. If a woman be troubled with the *white fluxe.

353 1827.  Faraday, Chem. Manip., xiii. (1842), 301. White flux is made by deflagrating a mixture of equal parts of nitre and cream of tartar.

354 c. 1423.  in Raine Ch. Yk. & Abps. (Rolls), III. 307. Pro xij. virgis de panno vocato *whytefalddyng.

355 1818.  Scott, Br. Lamm., xii. There is black pudding and *white-hass—try whilk ye like best.

356 1824.  Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., White Hawse, a favourite pudding.

357 1540.  Palsgr., Acolastus, II. iii. L ij b. May not I … be estemed the sonne of a *whyte henne .i. maye not men … thinke, that I was borne in a good howre.

358 1630.  B. Jonson, New Inn, I. iii. All … are not sonnes o’ the white Hen.

359 1716.  Poor Robin, Feb. A 6. Money is a Chick of the white Hen, he that hath it, hath Fortune by the forelock.

360 1833.  T. Hamilton, Men & Manners Amer. (1843), 1300. The President, however, having politely intimated that he received company every evening, I ventured … to present myself, on one occasion, at the *‘White House.’

361 1882.  W. J. Christy, Joints used by Builders, 32. *White Joint.—One formed with ordinary mortar as distinguished from blue mortar. Or it is made by pointing with white putty.

362 1744.  Fielding, Tumble Down Dick, Wks. 1766, IV. 250. Tho’ all the earth was one continued smoke, ’Twould not prevent my dancing the *White Joke.

363 c. 1450.  Brut, 447. A leyche called *‘whyte leyche.’

364 1573, 1750.  [see LEACH sb.1 2].

365 c. 1700.  Pepys, in Rollins, Pepysian Garl. (1922), Pref. p. vii. The Form … of the Black Letter with Picturs, seems (for cheapness sake) wholly laid aside, for that of the *White Letter without Pictures.

366 1717.  Hearne, Collect. (O. H. S.), VI. 95. It is printing … in the white Letter, contrary to Mr. Urry’s mind, who was resolved upon the black Letter and would not hear of the white.

367 1879.  Chappell, Roxb. Ball., II. 450. Two of the copies were issued by Whitwood…, one by Norris in white letter.

368 1899.  J. Hutchinson, in Archives Surg., X. 146. The nail as it grows forms and exhibits white spots in consequence [of injury]—*‘white lies.’

369 1857.  J. Scoffern, etc., Usef. Metals, 344. The cutter’s chisels would often penetrate parts which were unsound, occasioned, apparently, by a white powder embedded in the steel: to distinguish this from the effects of imperfect welding, it was called *white-loose. Ibid., The files were without white-loose.

370 1603.  J. Davies, Microcosmos, Wks. (Grosart), I. 9. Thou blessed Ile, *white Marke for Envie’s aime.

371 1895.  Grace Howard Peirce, in Atlantic Monthly, March, 333/2. She was thinking of his *‘white mass,’—the first mass of a young priest.

372 1642.  Howell, For. Trav. (Arb.), 41. As it is proverbially said, there are in Genoa, Mountaines without wood, Sea without fish, Women without shame, and Men without conscience, which makes them to be termed the *white Moores.

373 1850.  H. Melville, White Jacket, II. xxvi. 167. A set of sly, knavish foxes among the crew…. In man-of-war parlance, they [are called] fancy-men and *white-mice.

374 1900.  Daily News, 10 March, 6/5. The sharp, ugly, low rat-faced, and the miserable, anæmic, shifty, human white-mice, are cursed ‘with soul to suit.’

375 1872.  Browning, Fifine, xxxiii. O the knotty point—*white night’s work to revolve.

376 1908.  Miss Broughton, Mamma, vii. 71. In the almost entirely white night she had just passed!

377 1569.  Aldeburgh Rec., in N. & Q., 12th Ser. VII. 184/3. ij quares of *whyte paper.

378 1680.  Debates in Parlt. (1681), 166. These Bills will … make your Banishing Bill, and Association-Bill too, as ineffectual as White Paper.

379 1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, 394. Although the first Form be Printed off, yet Press-men … call that Heap White-Paper, till the Reteration be Printed.

380 1687.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2125/4. Linen Rags, and other Materials for making of White Paper.

381 1772.  Gentl. Mag., April, 192/1. She ’s fair White Paper, an unsully’d sheet.

382 1859.  Stationers’ Handbk., 27. Printing papers, sometimes spoken of in a trade sense, as ‘White papers.’

383 1899.  Daily News, 13 March, 5/1. An interesting White Paper has been published … giving reports from our Ambassadors and Consular officers abroad on the telephone services in the countries to which they are attached.

384 17[?].  ‘Get up and bar the door,’ vii. in Herd, Scot. Songs (1776), II. 159. And first they ate the *white puddings, And then they ate the black.

385 1463.  Bury Wills (Camden), 24. xijs. of *white rente.

386 1630.  Dodridge, Dvtchy of Cornewall, 99. White rent … is a dutie payable yeerely by euery Tynner in the County of Deuon,… that is, of euery Tynner 8.d.

387 1664.  Spelman, Gloss., Quietus redditus … Vulgo Quit rente, qui & alias White rente nuncupatur, quod in denariis & argento penditur.

388 1717.  Northumbrian Docts. (Surtees), 61. A white-rent of 13s. 6d. from two or three freeholds in Woodburne.

389 17[?].  Song, in Farquhar, Beaux-Strat., III. iii. *White rods are no trifles, I’m sure, Whatever their bearers may be.

390 1876.  Bancroft, Hist. U.S., I. x. 347. A chancery court and a court-leet, sergeants and white rods.

391 1558.  G. Cavendish, Poems, etc. (1825), II. 99. Adewe, my sonne Edward! sprong of the royall race Of the *wight rose and the red.

392 1622.  Bacon, Hen. VII., 4. The People, who … had beene fully made capable of the clearnesse of the Title of the White-Rose or House of Yorke.

393 1716.  Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), V. 237. Divers were destroyed by the Georgian Party, only for having white Roses, a way by which … the Cavaliers distinguished themselves.

394 1887.  F. M. Crawford, Saracinesca, i. Men flocked to the standards of the White Rose of York.

395 1912.  D. M. Wallace, Russia, xxxix. 726. It [the first Duma] was composed of many nationalities clustering round the dominant race. The chic ethnographical groups were the Great-Russians (265), the Little-Russians (62), the *White-Russians (12), the Poles (51), the Lithuanians (10), the Letts (6), the Esthonians (4), the Germans (4), the Jews (13), the Tartars (8), and the Bashkirs (4).

396 1909.  Osler, in A. C. Klebs, Tuberculosis, 7. Throughout the world the most intense interest has been stimulated in the fight against the *white scourge.

397 1922.  Christine Orr, Kate Curlew, ii. She learned *white-sewing from an aunt.

398 1594.  Zepheria, xxxvi. F 2 b. Thy face being vayld, this pennance I award, Clad in *white sheet thou stand in Paules Churchyard.

399 1901.  Rhys, Celtic Folklore, I. v. 351. Old people still living remember men and women clad in white sheets doing penance publicly in the churches of Man.

400 c. 1833.  M. T. Sadler, in Mem. (1842), 405. Their tender hearts were sighing As negro wrongs were told, While the *white slave lay dying Who gained their father’s gold!

401 1840.  T. Gordon, trans. W. Menzel’s Ger. Lit., IV. 87. Seume … like many thousands of ‘white slaves,’ that is, German subjects, who were then sold by their princes to the Dutch or English, had been shipped for the colonies.

402 1889.  [see SLAVE sb. 3].

403 1922.  Times Lit. Suppl., 27 April, 278/2. The villain of the piece … is a *white slaver [= procurer].

404 1828.  G. Smeeton, Doings in London, 83. Here is, indeed, the British white slavery [viz. of dressmakers]; only, with this difference, that their more fortunate sufferers [sic] in the West Indies have regular food and appointed hours of work.

405 1835.  Edin. Rev., July, 463. These representations of the ruinous effects of what has been called white slavery … were at length embodied in Mr. Sadler’s famous Factory Report.

406 1857.  W. Acton, Prostitution, 94. The natural question, ‘Why does not this woman escape from this white slavery?’ is best answered by other queries—Whither can she fly? What can she do?

407 1541.  Coverdale, Confut. Standish (1547), l ij b. Maruaill not … though (whan I se you folowe your vnholy mother…) I call you … her owne *whyte sonne.

408 a. 1553.  Udall, Royster D., I. i. Be his nowne white sonne.

409 1601.  Yarington, Two Lament. Trag., IV. vi. G 4 b. Young Allenso your white honnie sonne.

410 a. 1613.  Overbury, A Wife, etc. (1630), P 8 b. The Deuill cals him his white sonne.

411 1666.  Lond. Gaz., No. 85/4. To steer after the Enemy, with the *White Squadron in the Van, and the Blew in the Rear.

412 1840.  [see BLUE a. 5 b].

413 1891.  [see RED a. 16 d].

414 1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, 546. The *White Steep. This part of the process is precisely the same with the last [sc. grey steep], except that the sheep’s dung is omitted in the composition of the steep.

415 c. 1645.  Howell, Lett., I. I. xiii. (1890), 38. You are one … whose Name I have mark’d with the *whitest Stone.

416 1748.  Smollett, Rod. Rand., lii. ‘God be praised! a white stone!’… he alluded to the Dies fasti of the Romans, albo lapide notati.

417 1885.  Hornaday, 2 Yrs. in Jungle, xxvii. 318. I have marked that day with a white stone as being the one on which I ate my first durian.

418 1655.  Vaughan, Silex Scint., II. (title), *White Sunday.

419 1577.  in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. IV. 26. Theire canvas and *whiteware.

420 1843.  Ecclesiologist, II. 31. A mean and unecclesiastical composition Font, containing a white-ware hand basin.

421 1913.  F. S. Eden, Anc. Glass, 45. A small *white window, made up of quarries (panes) decorated in brown enamel set in a white and coloured border.

422 1813.  Byron, Corsair, I. iii. How gloriously her gallant course she [sc. the ship] goes! Her *white wings flying.

423 1880.  Black (title), White Wings: a Yachting Romance.

424 1610.  B. Jonson, Alch., II. iii. Your red man, and your *white woman, With all your broths, your menstrues, and materialls.

425   12.  Combinations.

426   a.  with other adjs. (or sbs.) of color (= whitish, light), as white-blue, -brown, -green, grey, † -hoar, -lyard (q.v.), -red, -russet. Also with other adjs., as WHITE-HOT, q.v.; white-sick (see quot.).

427 1608.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. Schism, 935. The Eastern winde drives on the roaring train Of *white-blew billows.

428 1643.  Baker, Chron., James (1653), 615. Course paper, commonly called *white brown paper.

429 1825.  T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., v. A small packet of white-brown paper.

430 1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, V. xii. 561. The white garden Succorie … hath … *whitegreene leaues.

431 c. 1533.  in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. II. 32. Some faire white, or *white gray palfreies.

432 1556.  Chron. Grey Friars (Camden), 28. The gray freeres chaungyd their habbetts from London rossette unto whytt gray.

433 1812.  J. Smyth, Pract. Customs (1821), 218. The hair of the wild Cat is very long, and of a fine white grey.

434 14[?].  Guy Warw. (Camb.) 4775. Hys fadur ys olde and *whytehore.

435 1577.  Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., 116. The best colours [for a horse] … the rone, the *white lyard, the bay, the sorell.

436 1607.  [see LYARD].

437 a. 1618.  Sylvester, Woodman’s Bear, xlv. Red-white hils, and *white-red plaines.

438 1601.  Holland, Pliny, XXXII. x. II. 446. A peece of cloth of a white russet colour.

439 1797.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XIII. 538/2. The female [oyster] *white-sick (as they term it), having a milky substance in the fin.

440   b.  with vbs. and pples., usually in instrumental sense = ‘with white,’ ‘in white (clothing or covering),’ or with complemental force = ‘so as to be, become, or appear white’: as white-paint vb.; white-bordered, -churned, -clad, -clothed, -flecked, -marked, -painted, -salted (see HERRING 1 b), -set (SET ppl. a. 6 a), -spotted, -tinned, white-flowing, -glittering, -looking, -waving adjs.

441 1830.  Withering’s Brit. Pl. (ed. 7), IV. 303. *White-bordered Cupping Peziza.

442 1823.  Coll. Poems (ed. Joanna Baillie), 259. The *white-churn’d waters.

443 1886.  Cornh. Mag., Sept., 249. An official … hands us over to the mercies of some boat’s crews of bare-legged brown or *white-clad Arabs.

444 1897.  ‘A. Hope,’ Phroso, ii. 30. The street, empty again save for groups of *white-clothed women.

445 1900.  Mary E. Wilkins, Parson Lord, One Good Time, 196. Her black thibet gown was gold-powdered and *white-flecked to the knees with pollen and winged seeds of passed flowers.

446 1827.  G. Darley, Sylvia, 5. Beautiful Glen of the *white-flowing torrent!

447 1729.  Savage, Wanderer, I. 75. *White-glittering ice, chang’d like the topaz, gleams, Reflecting saffron lustre from his beams.

448 1870.  P. M. Duncan, Blanchard’s Transf. Insects, 121. A flabby,… *white-looking grub.

449 1887.  Amer. Naturalist, XXI. 581. The *white-marked tussock-moth.

450 1897.  Mag. of Art, Sept., 268/2. He whitewashed and *white-painted what was coloured.

451 1828.  P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 157. Four *white-painted tarpaulings.

452 1889.  Conan Doyle, Micah Clarke, xxviii. The pile of bodies … with their twisted limbs and *white-set faces.

453 1776.  Withering, Bot. Arrangem., 606. *White spotted Willow Lady-cow.

454 1903.  J. Conrad & Hueffer, Romance, I. iv. A red, white-spotted handkerchief.

455 1521–2.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1904), 313. A brase of iron for the sacryng bell that was *whight tynned.

456 1822.  Campbell, Song of Greeks, 47. Our maidens shall dance with their *white-waving arms.

457   c.  Parasynthetic Combinations, chiefly adjectives in -ED2, unlimited in number (many occurring in specific designations of animals or plants), as white-armed, -barred, -beaked, -bearded, -bellied, -billed, -bosomed, -breasted, -cheeked, -coated, -crested, -faced, -flannelled, -flowered, -frilled, -frocked, -fronted, -gloved, -handed, -hatted, -hoofed (-hooved), -horned, -leaved, -legged, -lipped, -listed (LIST sb.3 5), -maned, -mantled, -plumed, -railed, -ribbed, -ribboned, -rinded, -robed, -roofed, -rumped, -shafted (SHAFT sb.2 4 b (a)), -sheeted, -shouldered, -sided, -skinned, -sleeved, -stoled, -strawed, -tailed, -throated, -tipped, -tongued (cf. 10), -toothed, -topped, -tufted, -tusked, -veiled, -veined, -waistcoated, -walled, -wanded, -whiskered, -wristed, etc., etc.; white-backed, having a white back; † in early use (of a document), blank on the back, unendorsed; white-blooded, having light-colored or colorless blood, without red corpuscles, as most invertebrate animals; white-crossed, bearing the figure of a white cross; white-eyed, having white eyes; having the iris of the eye white, or having white plumage around the eyes; white-favo(u)red, wearing white favors (FAVOUR sb. 7 b); white-hearted, (a) faint-hearted, timid, cowardly (cf. sense 5 and WHITE-LIVERED); (b) pure-hearted, saintly (cf. sense 7); white-horsed, (a) bearing the figure of a white horse; (b) having or driving a white horse or horses; white-looked, having a white or pale look or aspect; white-mouthed, (a) having the mouth white with foam, foaming; (b) having a white mouth or lip, as a shell; † white-rigged (whyt reged), white-backed (see RIGGED a.1); see also WHITE-EARED, etc.; also white-flesher, a name for the ruffed grouse, from its light-colored flesh or meat.

458 1718.  Pope, Iliad, XV. 98. The *white-arm’d Goddess.

459 1466.  Stonor Papers (Camden), I. 87. Ye must gete lenger day of his parte, and þer for y sende yow þe writte *white backed.

460 1783.  Latham, Gen. Syn. Birds, II. I. 82. White-backed Thrush.

461 1869.  E. Newman, Brit. Moths, 16. The *White-barred Clearwing (Sesia Sphegiformis).

462 1811.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., VIII. 13. *White-beaked Hornbill.

463 1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 509. Falstaffe, that old *white-bearded Sathan.

464 1611.  Cotgr., Carpion, a kind of … *white-bellied Trout.

465 1774.  Phil. Trans., LXV. 271. The hirundo melba, or great white-bellied Swift of Gibraltar.

466 1872.  Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds, 82. White-bellied Nuthatch.

467 1782.  Latham, Gen. Syn. Birds, I. II. 553. *White-billed Woodpecker.

468 1802.  *White-blooded [see red-blooded, RED a. 14 a].

469 1835–6.  Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 165/1. The natural position of the white-blooded worms is by the side of those with red blood.

470 1793.  Coleridge, Compl. Ninathoma, 8. They blessed the *white-bosom’d Maid.

471 1756.  P. Browne, Jamaica (1789), 470. The *white-breasted Guinea-Hen.

472 a. 1593.  Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, II. xviii. *White-cheekt Penelope knewe Vlisses signe.

473 1781.  Pennant, Hist. Quadrup., 331. White-cheeked Weesel.

474 1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, xv. A *white-coated, red-eyed dog.

475 1866.  Howells, Venetian Life, xii. 168. The white-coated sentinels.

476 1678.  Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 112. *White crested Parrot.

477 1848.  C. C. Clifford, trans. Frogs of Aristophanes, 34. Whitecrested morions.

478 1856.  Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., lviii. 545. The fast-flitting clouds, the breezy grass, the wind-shaken foliage and the white-crested waves, all were emblems of life.

479 1632.  Lithgow, Trav., VII. 329. *White cross’d.

480 1783.  Latham, Gen. Syn. Birds, II. II. 475. *White-eyed Warbler.

481 1831.  Audubon, Ornith. Biogr., I. 328. The White-eyed Flycatcher,… Vireo Noveboracensis.

482 1833.  Tennyson, Palace Art, lx. White-eyed phantasms weeping tears of blood.

483 1595.  Shaks., John, II. i. 23. That *white-fac’d shore.

484 1781.  Pennant, Hist. Quadrup., 82. White-faced Antelope.

485 1856.  Stanley, Sinai & Pal., vi. 255. The white-faced hill … is the ‘Blanche Garde’ of the Crusading chroniclers.

486 1898.  ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, i. The children, white-faced and melancholy.

487 1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., Concl. 90. The time draws on, And those *white-favour’d horses wait.

488 1884.  J. Hatton, in Harper’s Mag., July, 230/1. Like an enormous billiard-table, dotted with *white-flannelled cricketers.

489 1831.  Sir J. Richardson, Fauna Bor.-Amer., II. 342. Tetrao umbellus…. Ruffed Grouse…. *White Flesher.

490 1634.  T. Johnson, Merc. Bot., 40. *White flowred Rush-grasse.

491 1842.  Tennyson, Godiva, 63. The white-flower’d elder-thicket.

492 1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. IV. iv. Gilt-edged *white-frilled individuals.

493 1891.  T. Hardy, Tess, I. ii. 22. The dance of the *white-frocked maids.

494 1768.  Pennant, Brit. Zool., II. 450. *White Fronted Wild Goose.

495 1712–4.  Pope, Rape Lock, V. 13. Why round our coaches croud the *white-glov’d Beaux?

496 1897.  Flandrau, Harvard Episodes, 318. The big, white-gloved policeman at the door.

497 1588.  Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 230. *White handed Mistris, one sweet word with thee.

498 1634.  Milton, Comus, 213. O welcom pure-ey’d Faith, white-handed Hope.

499 1828.  Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 60. White-handed Lemur.—Inhabits Madagascar.

500 1835.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Last Cab-driver. A brown-whiskered, *white-hatted, no-coated cabman.

501 a. 1617.  Bayne, On Eph. i. (1643), 8. Such *white-hearted Christians, who are ashamed of their Master.

502 1865.  Burritt, Walk to Land’s End, 407. If the painter were a devout, white-hearted man.

503 1832.  Tennyson, Œnone, 50. A jet-black goat *white-horn’d, *white-hooved.

504 1832.  J. Bree, St. Herbert’s Isle, 5. War … her *white-horsed banner furls.

505 1872.  Calverley, Fly Leaves, Morning, i. The hour when white-horsed Day Chases Night her mares away.

506 1822.  Hortus Anglicus, II. 465. Chinese *White-leaved Nettle.

507 1716.  Gay, Ep. to Earl Burlington, 16. Brentford,… For dirty streets and *white-legg’d chickens known.

508 1848.  Dickens, Dombey, xxxvii. As he rode away upon his white-legged horse.

509 1841.  Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), II. 78. Oncidium leucochilum, (*white-lipped).

510 1920.  W. J. Locke, House of Baltazar, xxii. She replied, white-lipped: ‘I’ll never forgive you till I’m dead!’

511 1859.  Tennyson, Merlin & V., 788. The tree that shone *white-listed thro’ the gloom.

512 1690.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2596/4. He is a short thin-faced *white-look’d Man.

513 1642.  in J. Wilson, Ann. Hawick (1850), 53. Ane foir meir, *quhyt mainet and quhyt taillet.

514 1825.  Scott, Betrothed, iv. The *white-mantled Welshmen.

515 1629.  Quarles, Argalus & P., III. Wks. (Grosart), III. 283/1. Whereat the angry Knight … forsooke His *white-mouth’d Steed.

516 1639.  G. Daniel, Ecclus. xliii. 64. The white-mouth’d Billowes of ye vnsounded Deepe.

517 1815.  Burrow, Elem. Conchol., 200. Voluta Æthiopica, white-mouth’d Melon.

518 1627.  P. Fletcher, Locusts, II. iv. As when the angry winds with seas conspire, The *white-plum’d hilles marching in set array Invade the earth.

519 1915.  S. Lee, Life Shakespeare, xii. 149. A white-plumed helmet stands to the left on a table covered with a cloth of purple velvet embroidered in gold.

520 1909.  H. Begbie, Cage, iv. Its *white-railed cattle-pens for market day.

521 c. 1711.  Petiver, Gazophyl., viii. 80. Small *white rib’d Barbadoes Limpet.

522 1885–94.  R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, Nov. xi. 117. Taking his fair *white-ribbon’d herald’s wand.

523 1568.  Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1835), 293. One *whyt reged cowe.

524 1874.  M. Collins, Frances, I. 214. Under a *white-rinded birch.

525 1625.  Milton, Death Fair Infant, 54. That crown’d Matron sage *white-robed Truth.

526 1816.  Wordsw., Ode, ‘Imagination—ne’er before content,’ 76. The white-robed choir.

527 1893.  W. Sharp, in Mem. (1910), 214. A white-robed Bedouin herding goats.

528 1863.  Miss Braddon, Eleanor’s Vict., i. The fruitful orchards and *white-roofed cottages.

529 1782.  Latham, Gen. Syn. Birds, I. II. 544. *White-Rumped Black Cuckow.

530 1832.  Rennie, Butterfl. & M., 230. The *White Shafted Plume [Moth] (Pt[erophous] tetradactylus).

531 1881.  Eleanor F. Poynter, Among the Hills, II. 317. Among the still, *white-sheeted meadows, his mind found again the quiet that for a moment it had lost.

532 1892.  E. Reeves, Homeward Bound, 209. We found the street … blocked up with white-sheeted figures. These were Arab … ladies escorting an intending bride … to the bath.

533 1781.  Latham, Gen. Syn. Birds, I. I. 190. *White-Shouldered Shrike.

534 1870.  Bryant, Homer, I. I. 32. Juno the white-shouldered smiled.

535 1588.  Wills & Inv. Durh. (Surtees), II. 33. One *white sided why.

536 1864–5.  Wood, Homes without H., xiii. 234. That [nest] which is made by the White-sided Hill Star.

537 1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 68. A white horse, so that he be not al *white-skynned aboute the mouthe.

538 1579–80.  North, Plutarch, Agesilaus (1595), 656. They scorned their bodies, because they saw them white skinned, soft, and delicate.

539 1851.  Schoolcraft, Amer. Indians, 164. Their white-skinned, auburn-haired, and blue-eyed progeny.

540 1802.  Wordsw., Valley near Dover, 4. Boys … In *white-sleeved shirts.

541 1790.  Wolcot (P. Pindar), Rowland for Oliver, etc., 30. To clasp with kisses sweet his *white-stol’d Maid.

542 1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 539. The *white-strawed wheat takes its name … from the colour of its ear.

543 1642.  *Quhyt taillet [see white-maned above].

544 1887.  I. R., Lady’s Ranche Life Montana, 45. This is the first wild animal I’ve seen, except antelope and white-tailed deer.

545 1776.  Pennant, Brit. Zool., II. pl. xcviii. *White throated duck.

546 1859.  Geo. Eliot, Adam Bede, xviii. A white-throated stoat … had run across the path.

547 1872.  Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds, 184. The outer feathers *white-tipped.

548 1637.  Rutherford, Lett. to Parishioners, 13 July. A heavie doom is for the liar and *white tongued flatterer.

549 1609.  Dekker, Gull’s Horn-bk., Proem. s The *whitest-toothd Blackamoore in all Asia.

550 1870.  Bryant, Homer, I. XI. 345. As when a hunter cheers His white-toothed dogs against some lioness.

551 1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 639. The … *white topped,… and the Dutch turnip.

552 1867.  Morris, Jason, II. 624. The white-topped billows.

553 1650.  [W. Howe], Phytol. Brit., 1. *White Tuffted Wormwood.

554 1872.  Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds, 302. White-tufted Cormorant.

555 1820.  Shelley, Hymn Merc., xcvi. The wild *White-tusked boars.

556 1856.  Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, I. 81. The *white-veiled, rose-crowned maidens.

557 c. 1711.  Petiver, Gazophyl., vii. 61. Common *white-veined Butterfly.

558 1828.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. Lost & Found. A rich trail of the white-veined ivy, which crept … over the ground.

559 1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, ii. The *white-waistcoated gentleman.

560 1816.  Byron, Pris. Chillon, 339. I saw the *white-wall’d distant town.

561 1812.  L. Hunt, in Examiner, 24 May, 321/2. He [Canning] shrinks in and puts on as submissive and penetrated a countenance as any *white-wanded Lord at a levee.

562 1819.  Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., XI. 56. *White-whiskered Pigeon.

563 1916.  Cullum, Men who Wrought, x. 137. His dark eyes were on the white-whiskered face of his host.

564 c. 1611.  Chapman, Iliad, XX. 110. *White-wristed Iuno.

565   d.  with sbs., forming adj. (or phrases used attrib.) in senses (a) ‘of, pertaining to, or consisting of (a) white ——,’ as white-brick, -flower, -linen; (b) ‘resembling (a) white ——,’ as white-dough, loaf, -rag, -sand, -satin; (c) ‘having or characterized by (a) white ——’ (equivalent to parasynthetic adjs. in -ed: see c), as white-berry, -eyelid, -nose, -underwing (see UNDERWING 2); white-bead bandstring, name for a species of coral resembling a string of white beads; white-blood disease (cf. white blood in 11 d) = LEUCHÆMIA; white hart silver (see quot. 1658); white-leaf, applied to a species of frog with white spots. See also WHITE-EAR, -LINE, -SKIN adjs.

566 1696.  Plukenet, Almagestum Bot., Wks. 1769, II. 118. Corallina fistulosa Jamaicensis,… Nostratibus *White Bead Bandstring dicta.

567 1814.  Lewis & Clark, Trav. Missouri, xxvi. (1815), III. 124. *Whiteberry honeysuckle.

568 1866.  Aitken, Pract. Med., II. 69. That the *‘white-blood’ disease proceeded from a primary affection of the spleen and lymphatic glands.

569 1909.  H. Begbie, Cage, v. A little *white-brick cottage.

570 1886.  Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., III. 273/2. Agaricus castus, *White dough mushroom.

571 1781.  Pennant, Hist. Quadrup., I. 189. *White-Eyelid Monkey … The upper eyelids of a pure white.

572 1818.  Keats, Endym., I. 669. Honey cells, Made delicate from all *white-flower bells.

573 1594.  Camden, Britannia (ed. 4), 150. Ipsa prædia quæ illi tenuerunt ad hanc vsque diem quotannis mulctæ nomine pecuniam in fiscum regium persoluunt, quæ *White hart Syluer .i. candidi cerui argentum appellatur.

574 1658.  Phillips, Blacklow Forrest, Called The Forrest of Whitehart from a very beautifull Whitehart, which King Henry the third … taking great care to spare, was killed by T. de la Linde, which so incensed the King, that he set a perpetual Fine upon the Land, which at this day is called Whitehart silver.

575 1802.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., III. 127. *White-leaf Frog…. Its colour is rufous above, variegated … with milk-white spots.

576 1756.  F. Home, Exper. Bleaching, 26. Lye which has been used to white linen, called *white-linen lye.

577 1813.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 161. The land sown … with the tankard and early *white loaf turnip.

578 1781.  Pennant, Hist. Quadrup., I. 190. *White Nose Monkey.

579 1882.  White-rag Worm [see LURG].

580 1822–7.  Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 326. Earthy or *white sand calculi.

581 1749.  B. Wilkes, Eng. Moths, etc., 21. The *white-satin moth. [Ibid., 23 The spotted red and *white underwing moth.]

582 1909.  Westm. Gaz., 9 Dec., 4/2. The common ‘white underwing’ moths.

583   e.  sbs. in which the second element denotes a distinctive part or attribute of that which is denoted by the whole word: white-back, local name for (a) the canvas-back duck; (b) the white poplar (from the color of the under side of the leaves); (c) collectors’ name for a species of moth (see quot. 1832); white-bark, local name for various trees with white bark (see quots.); white-breech, trans. L. pygargus, PYGARG 1; † white-cloak, ? = WHITE MONK; white-comb, a form of favus attacking the combs of fowls; white-eye, name for various birds, either having a white iris, as the white-eyed pochard (Nyroca ferruginea) and the white-eyed fly-catcher (Vireo noveboracensis), or having white plumage around the eyes, as the species of the genus Zosterops, also called silver-eye; white-face, a name for Hereford cattle; white-front, the white-fronted goose, Anser albifrons; white-hat, one who wears a white hat (in quot., as quasi-proper name); white-hood, a regent member of the senate of the University of Cambridge (obs. exc. Hist.); white-leg, the disease phlegmasia dolens (see PHLEGMASIA); white-nose = white-nose monkey: see 12 d (c); white point, collectors’ name for a moth (Leucania albipuncta) having a white dot on each of the fore wings; white-root, the herb Solomon’s seal, from its white creeping rootstock; white-rump, (a) the wheatear, Saxicola ænanthe; (b) the Hudsonian godwit, Limosa hæmastica; white-sides, white-spot, collectors’ names for species of moths (see quots.); white-spur, title of a class of esquires who wore silvered spurs; white-stocking, one who wears white stockings; in quot. applied to a horse with white legs; white-straw, name for a variety of wheat; white-tip, an artificial fly; white-top, (a) a N. American species of bent-grass, Agrostis alba (cf. RED-TOP 2); (b) an Australian tree, the Flintwood (Eucalyptus pilularis); white-wig, one who wears a white wig. See also WHITEBEARD, -FEATHER, etc.

584 1814.  Alex. Wilson, Amer. Ornith. (1829), III. 341. Canvass-back Duck…. On the Potowmac [they are called] *White-backs.

585 a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, White-back, the white poplar, Populus alba. So called from the whiteness of the under side of the leaves.

586 1832.  Rennie, Butterfl. & M., 199. The White-back (Y[ponomeuta] pruniella).

587 1700.  Plukenet, Mantissa, Opera 1769 III. 113. Lappula Althæoides Americana … *White-Barke, Barbadensibus vulgo.

588 1889.  Maiden, Useful Pl. Australia, 411. Cupania semiglauca,… White Bark. Ibid., 421. Elæocarpus cyaneus,… White Bark.

589 a. 1661.  Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 216. Trypherus … Carves … th’ Hare, Boar, the *White-Breech too, The Scythian Phesant,… And the Getulian Goat.

590 1621.  Lodge, Summary of Du Bartas, II. 22. The *white Cloakes, the Carmes, The Augustines, the Bernardines, the Iacobins, the Cordeliers.

591 1854.  Poultry Chron., II. 40. A list of diseases … Apoplexy, *white comb, cramp, [etc.].

592 1848.  Gould, Birds Australia, IV. 81. Zosterops Dorsalis,… Grey-backed Zosterops; *White-eye.

593 1862.  Johns, Brit. Birds, 625. White-eye, the Nyroca Pochard.

594 1860.  W. White, Wrekin, xi. 93. I journeyed down … into the fertile champaign of the *whitefaces.

595 1912.  E. T. Seton, Arctic Prairies, 277. Not less than 12,000 Waveys will be salted down this fall, besides Honkers, *White-fronts and Ducks.

596 1693.  C. Mather, in G. L. Burr, Narr. Witchcraft Cases (1914), 284. That spirit by them [sc. the Newfoundlanders] called *White-Hat, who ordinarily appears on the Shore, in a White-hat … a little before some dangerous Tempest.

597 1764.  Ann. Reg., Chron., 58. [Cambridge] There appeared among the black-hoods … placet, 103…. Among the *white hoods the proctors accounts differed.

598 1860.  Mayne, Expos. Lex., Phlegmatia Dolens … the disease *white-leg.

599 1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1824), II. ix. 157. The Seventh [monkey] is the Moustoc, or *White Nose.

600 1869.  E. Newman, Brit. Moths, 475. The *White-point (Leucania Albipuncta).

601 1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxix. 102. *White roote or Salomons seale is of two sortes.

602 1797.  Bewick, Brit. Birds, I. 229. The *White-rump. Wheatear.

603 1817.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., X. 568. The White-rump has a very pretty song.

604 1888.  G. Trumbull, Names of Birds, 209. Limosa hæmastica … [called] at West Barnstable, White-rump.

605 1832.  Rennie, Butterfl. & M., 177. The *White Sides (P[eronea] albicostana). Ibid., 56. The *White Spot (Gr[aphiphora] albimacula). Ibid., 144. The White Spot (M[acaria] unipunctata). Ibid., I. 148. Ennychia … The White Spot (E. octomaculata).

606 1600.  Camden, Britannia (ed. 5), 140. Rex … armigeros creat collum torque S. S. vel sigmatico argenteo, & candidis, & argentatis calcaribus exornans, vnde hodie in occidentalibus regni partibus vocantur *Whitespurres ad discrimen Equitum auratorum qui auratis calcaribus vti solent.

607 1706.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4219/4. A Plate to be run for,… by Galloways, not exceeding 13 hands and half high, (the Guilford *White-Stockings excepted).

608 1697.  Rector’s Bk. Clayworth (1910), 121. *White-straw & Joysting.

609 1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 539. The white-strawed wheat … in other counties bears the appellation of the Kentish white-straw.

610 1867.  F. Francis, Bk. Angling, xii. 379. The *White Tip … is a standard Tweed pattern.

611 1819.  D. B. Warden, Acc. United States, II. 8. The grasses are: White clover, *white top and red top, [etc.].

612 1889.  Maiden, Useful Pl. Australia, 502. Eucalyptus pilularis,… a Mountain Ash of Illawarra…, Willow, or White Top … (New South Wales).

613 1673.  Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, Prol. *White-Wig and Vizard make no longer jar.

614   f.  with sbs., forming vbs. (chiefly nonce-wds.): white-ball, to clean with a ball of whiting; white-mail, to seize or appropriate like blackmail, but for a good purpose; white-tooth, to show one’s white teeth at. See also WHITE-LINE v.

615 1780.  Mirror, No. 93, ¶ 12. The servants had their liveries new *white-ball’d.

616 1861.  Reade, Cloister & H., lii. He spent much of his gains … in … choice drugs, and would have so invested them all, but Margaret *white-mailed a part.

617 1876.  A. J. Evans, Through Bosnia, iii. 89. A dusky Ethiopian maiden *white-toothing us in the most coquettish fashion.

618   g.  white-like a., whitish; somewhat pale.

619 1608.  Phil. Trans., XX. 379. The Petroleum which is found in Italy is a white-like Spirit of Turpentine.

620 1893.  Stevenson, Catriona, xxii. She looked white-like as she beheld the bursting of the sprays.

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