1. An old man with a white beard.
† Also as quasi-proper name: in quot. 1450 probably in allusion to the representation of God the Father as an aged man.
1450. Sir J. Fastolf in Paston Lett., I. 131. They shall be quyt by Blackberd or Whyteberd; that ys to sey, by God or the Devyll.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. ii. 112. Whitebeards [mispr. White Beares] haue arm’d their thin and hairelesse Scalps Against thy Maiestie.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., xii. ‘If she were worth twenty crowns,’ … said the old whitebeard.
2. Name in Australia for the plant Styphelia cricoides, from the white hairs on the corolla.
1898. Morris, Austral Engl.
