subs. (old).—1.  Chastity: also WHITE (or cold) SHEETS; (2) = nakedness.

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  1604.  SHAKESPEARE, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. The purity and whiteness of my sheets. Ibid. (1605), Cymbeline, i. 6. Should he make me live … betwixt cold sheets whiles he is vaulting variable ramps? Ibid., ii. 2. The chastity … whiter than the sheets! That I might touch!

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  1654.  CHAPMAN, Revenge for Honour, iv.

                            ’Twas a rape
Upon my honour, more then on her WHITENESSE.
    Ibid., iii.
And now I would not but this devil Prince
Had done this act upon Caropia’s WHITENESS.

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