White

subs. (common).—1.  In pl. = leucorrhœa.

  2.  (old).—In pl. = white clothes, vestments, or goods.

  1644.  HEYLYN, Life of Laud, 262. The Dean of our chappel … in his WHITES.

  d. 1655.  T. ADAMS, Works, ii. 174. You clothe Christ with your blacks on earth, he will clothe you with his glorious WHITES in heaven.

  1724–7.  DEFOE, A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain, i. 324. Long cloths for the Turkey trade called Salisbury WHITES.

  1888.  Bicycling News, 14 July, 19. Unless a man can combine cycling and boating, he should never … ride his machine in WHITES.

  3.  (old archery).—(a) The centre of a target: Fr. blanc: formerly painted white: cf. BULL’S-EYE. Whence (b) the object in view, a mark; TO HIT THE WHITE = to be right.

  1580.  J. LYLY, Euphues and His England [NARES]. An archer say you is to be knowen by his aime, not by his arrowe: but your aime is so ill, that if you knewe how farre wide from the WHITE your shaft sticketh, you would hereafter rather breake your bowe then bend it.

  1593.  SHAKESPEARE, Taming of the Shrew, v. 2. ’Twas I won the wager, though you HIT THE WHITE.

  c. 1605.  DRAYTON, The Moon-calf, 509. Quoth mother Owlett, ‘You have HIT THE WHITE.’

  1629.  FELTHAM, Parody, Jonson’s Ode on Leaving the Stage.

  1632.  MASSINGER, The Emperor of the East, iv. 4. The immortality of my fame is the WHITE I shoot at.

  c. 1635.  HOWELL, Familiar Letters, iii. 3. Church-Lands were made secular, which was the WHITE they levell’d at.

  4.  (colloquial).—In pl. = the white of the eyes.

  1600.  Grim, the Collier of Croydon, iii. [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), xi. 229].

  1682.  J. BARNARD, Life of Heylyn, clxxx. Lifting up both his hands and WHITES to heaven.

  1764.  MACKLIN, The Man of the World, iii. 1. Ay, and I turned up the WHITES of my eyes till the strings awmost cracked again.

  Adj. (old and still colloquial in many senses).—1.  Thus WHITE (= fair or specious) WORDS; WHITE (= lucky) DAY: cf. RED-LETTER DAY; WHITE (= excusable) LIE (GROSE); WHITE (= venial) CRIME; WHITE (= friendly) WITCH; WHITE (= honourable) MAN, formerly = fair, handsome; WHITE (= guiltless) WAY; WHITE (= auspicious) HOUR; WHITE (= beneficially levied) MAIL.

  c. 1300.  Hymns to Virgin [E.E.T.S.], 72. Y was stalworthe & WHITE.

  1369.  CHAUCER, Troilus and Criseyde, ii. 1062.

  1606.  The Return from Parnassus, ii., 6 [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ix. 154]. When he returns, I’ll tell twenty admirable lies of his hawk; and then I shall be his little rogue and his WHITE VILLAIN for a whole week after.

  c. 1616.  FLETCHER, The Knight of Malta, ii. 5. In the WHITE WAY of virtue and true valour.

  1630.  SHIRLEY, The Grateful Servant, ii. 1.

  1689.  MATHER, A Discourse on Witchcraft, 5. There is mention of creatures that they call WHITE-WITCHES, which do only good turns for their neighbours.

  1715.  ADDISON, The Drummer, ii., 1. The common people call him a wizard, a WHITE WITCH, a conjurer, a cunning man, a necromancer.

  1789.  BURNEY, Diary, iv. 289. Sir George has told me a lie—a WHITE LIE, he says, but I hate a WHITE LIE; if you will tell me a lie, let it be a black lie.

  1815.  SCOTT, Guy Mannering [WEBSTER]. On the whole the Dominie reckoned this as one of the WHITE DAYS of his life. Ibid. (1821), Kenilworth, i. 170. He was what the vulgar call a WHITE-WITCH, a cunning man, and such like.

  1834.  EDGEWORTH, Helen, vi. I wish that word fib was out of the English language, and WHITE LIE drummed out after it.

  1855.  C. KINGSLEY, Westward Ho! 1. When he had warts or burns, he went to the WHITE-WITCH at Northam to charm them away.

  1861.  C. READE, The Cloister and the Hearth, iii. He spent much of his gains, however, in sovereign herbs and choice drugs, and would have so invested them all, but Margaret WHITE-MAILED a part.

  1869.  H. B. STOWE, Oldtown Folks, xxvii. The Thanksgiving festival of that year is particularly impressed on my mind as a WHITE DAY.

  1889.  A. A. HAYES, Laramie Jack, in The Century Magazine, xxxix. 523. Why, Miss, he ’s a friend worth havin’, and don’t you forget it. There ain’t a WHITER MAN than Laramie Jack from the Wind River Mountains down to Santa Fe.

  1887.  St. James’s Gazette, 21 May. At present, when an Irishman is accused in Ireland of what is called a WHITE-CRIME by his fellow-countrymen (such, for instance, as the murder of a caretaker or a landlord) the difficulty is not only with the jury but with the witnesses.

  1898.  N. GOULD, Landed at Last, iv. There goes a ‘WHITE MAN,’ if ever there was one…. That beard of his … the only black thing about him.

  1900.  LYNCH, High Stakes, xliii. She is the one WHITE, beautiful, lovable creature in all the world—to me.

  2.  See WHITE-BOY.

  3.  See WHITE-LOT.

  Verb (old).—To gloss over, to rehabilitate: also (modern) WHITEWASH, which spec. = to clear of debt by process of the Bankruptcy Court. Hence WHITEWASH, subs. = a veneer of respectability; with WHITEWASHER and WHITEWASHING as derivatives. Also TO USE ONE WHITE = (1) to deal fairly and justly, and (2) to act on the SQUARE (q.v.).

  c. 1616.  FLETCHER, The Bloody Brother, iv. 1. WHIT’ST over all his vices.

  1773.  FOOTE, The Bankrupt [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 186. Among the verbs are WHITEWASH a creditor].

  1817.  SCOTT, Rob Roy, vii. A WHITE-WASHED Jacobite … had lately qualified himself to act as a justice, by taking the oaths to Government.

  1844–8.  J. R. LOWELL, Tempora Mutantur.

  1888.  Daily Telegraph, 21 March. The impecunious man could get the Bankruptcy Court to WHITEWASH him.

  1885.  Notes and Queries, 28 Nov., 439. Attempts to WHITEWASH the character of Richard III…. have been frequent.

  1885.  Academy, 21 Nov., 342. I have not aimed altogether at a WHITEWASHING of Bramwell Brontë.

  1888.  St. James’s Gazette, 17 March. If the Sicilian Vespers … have not as yet taken their place in the record of virtue, it is probably because the WHITEWASHER has been too busy upon other undertakings.

  1903.  Daily Telegraph, 22 May, 7. 3. I had not followed the case closely, and did not know that he was an undischarged bankrupt. Mr. White had WHITEWASHED him.

  1900.  LYNCH, High Stakes, xxix. I don’t see why I should give away a fellow that’s USED ME WHITE.

  TO SPIT WHITE, verb. phr. (old).—To expectorate from a dry but healthy mouth: also to SPIT WHITE BROTH (or SIXPENCES). Fr. cracher des pièces de dix sous.

  1594.  J. LYLY, Mother Bombie, iii. 1 [NARES]. That makes them SPIT WHITE BROATH, as they do.

  1598.  SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry IV., i. 2. 237. If it be a hot day, and I brandish anything but a bottle, I would I might never SPIT WHITE again.

  1622.  MASSINGER, The Virgin Martyr, iii. 3. Spun. Had I been a pagan still, I should not have SPIT WHITE for want of drink.

  1772.  R. GRAVES, The Spiritual Quixote, IV. vi. He had thought it rather a dry discourse; and beginning to SPIT SIX-PENCES (as his saying was), he gave hints to Mr. Wildgoose to stop at the first public-house they should come to.