white
see also: White
Pronunciation Adjective

white (comparative whiter, superlative whitest)

  1. Bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
    Antonyms: black, nonwhite, unwhite
    Write in black ink on white paper.
    • white as the whitest lily on a stream.
    • 1381, quoted in Hans Kurath & Sherman M. Kuhn, eds., Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-01044-8, page 1242 (1961):
      dorrẹ̅, dōrī adj. & n. […] cook. glazed with a yellow substance; pome(s ~, sopes ~. […] 1381 Pegge Cook. Recipes page 114: For to make Soupys dorry. Nym onyons […] Nym wyn […] toste wyte bred and do yt in dischis, and god Almande mylk.
  2. (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to Caucasians, people of European descent with light-coloured skin.
  3. (chiefly, historical) Designated for use by Caucasians.
    white drinking fountain
    white hospital
  4. Relatively light or pale in colour.
    white wine
    white grapes
    white birch
  5. Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
    • Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! / They come! they come!"
  6. (of a, person or skin) Lacking coloration (tan) from ultraviolet light; not tanned.
    Synonyms: fair, pale
    Antonyms: tanned
  7. (of coffee or tea) Containing cream, milk, or creamer.
    Antonyms: black
  8. (board games, chess) The standard denomination of the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the white set, no matter what the actual colour.
    The white pieces in this set are in fact made of light green glass.
  9. Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in white habits; Cistercian.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:15.9?rgn=div2;view=fulltext chapter ix], in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII:
      NOw rydeth Galahalt yet withouten shelde / and so rode four dayes without ony aduenture / And at the fourth day after euensonge / he came to a whyte Abbay / and there was he receyued with grete reuerence / and ledde vnto a chambre / and there was he vnarmed / And thenne was he ware of knyghtes of the table round
  10. Honourable, fair; decent.
    • White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear.
    • I trust Lionel. He got me out; he'll see I don't get in again. You must known Lionel. He's a white man all through, and the prison that can hold him has got to be made.
    • 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, 2010, p.12:
      ‘We've only met twice and you've been more than white to me both times.’
  11. Grey, as from old age; having silvery hair; hoary.
    • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
      Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this.
  12. (archaic) Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favourable.
    • 1815 February 23, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. [...] In Three Volumes, volume (please specify ), Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], OCLC 742335644 ↗:
  13. (obsolete) Regarded with especial favour; favourite; darling.
    • Come forth, my white spouse.
    • I am his white boy, and will not be gulled.
  14. (politics) Pertaining to constitutional or anti-revolutionary political parties or movements.
    • 1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, 2010, p.163:
      Aimée de Coigny had always adopted with enthusiasm the political views of her ruling lover and she had thus already held nearly every shade of opinion from red republicanism to white reaction.
  15. (of tea) Made from immature leaves and shoots.
  16. (typography) Not containing characters; see white space.
  17. (typography) Said of a symbol or character outline, not solid, not filled with color. Compare black ("said of a character or symbol filled with color").
    Compare two Unicode symbols: = "WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX"; = BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX
  18. Characterised by the presence of snow.
    a white Christmas
    a white Easter
Noun

white

  1. The color/colour of snow or milk; the colour of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
  2. A person of European descent with light-coloured skin.
  3. Any butterfly of the family Pieridae.
  4. (countable and uncountable) White wine.
  5. (countable) Any object or substance that is of the color white.
    1. The albumen of bird eggs (egg white).
    2. (anatomy) The sclera, white of the eye.
    3. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The cue ball in cue games.
    4. (slang, US) Cocaine
    5. The snow- or ice-covered "green" in snow golf.
    6. A white pigment.
      Venice white
  6. (archery) The central part of the butt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of a mark at which a missile is shot.
    • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene ii]:
      'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.
  7. The enclosed part of a letter of the alphabet, especially when handwritten.
    • 1594, Hugh Plat, The Jewell House of Art and Nature, London, Chapter 38, p. 42,
      Also it giueth a great grace to your writing, if the whites of certeine letters bee made of one equall bignesse with the o. supposing the same were all round, as the white of the b. of the a. p. y. v. w. x. q. d. g. and s.
    • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 18,
      […] the a. b. d. g. o. p. q. &c. […] must be made with equal whites.
    • 1931, Margery Allingham, Police at the Funeral, Penguin, 1939, Chapter 14, p. 157,
      She copied the whole alphabet like that, as though only the inside whites of the letters registered on her mind.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • German: Weißling
Translations Translations Verb

white (whites, present participle whiting; past and past participle whited)

  1. (transitive) To make white; to whiten; to bleach.
    • Bible, Matthew xxiii. 27
      whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of […] uncleanness
    • Bible, Mark ix. 3
      so as no fuller on earth can white them

White
Proper noun
  1. Surname
  2. A locale in the United States:
    1. A city in Georgia, ;.
    2. A city in South Dakota, ;.
    3. An unincorporated community in Washington, ;.
    4. A ghost town in Missouri, ;.
Adjective

white (not comparable)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of white (“of or relating to Caucasians”)
Noun

white (plural whites)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of white (“Caucasian”)
  2. (historical, politics) An anticommunist who fought against the Reds during the Russian Civil War.
    Hypernyms: anticommunist



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