English
white
see also: White
Etymology
  • Western Frisian wyt
  • Dutch wit
  • German weiß
  • German weiss
  • Norwegian Bokmål hvit
  • Norwegian Nynorsk kvit
  • Lithuanian šviẽsti, šviesa
  • Church Slavic свѣтъ, свѣтьлъ
  • Persian سفید
  • Avestan 𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬉𐬙𐬀
  • Sanskrit श्वेत.
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.
    • c. 1878, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Holidays:
      white as the whitest lily on a stream.
  2. (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to Europeans or those of European descent, regardless if their skin has cool or warm undertones.
  3. (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to Caucasians (people with white complexion and European ancestry).
  4. (sometimes capitalized) By United States Census Bureau definition, of or relating to people hailing from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
  5. (chiefly, historical) Designated for use by Caucasians.
    white drinking fountain
    white hospital
  6. Relatively light or pale in colour.
    white wine
    white grapes
    white birch
  7. Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
    • 1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC ↗, (please specify the stanza number):
      Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! / They come! they come!"
  8. (of a, person or skin) Lacking coloration (tan) from ultraviolet light; not tanned.
    Synonyms: fair, pale
    Antonyms: tanned
  9. (of an, animal) Affected by leucism.
  10. (of coffee or tea) Containing cream, milk, or creamer.
    Antonyms: black
  11. (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.
  12. Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in white habits; Cistercian.
    a white monk
  13. Honourable, fair; decent.
    • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Second Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC ↗:
      White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear.
    • 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:
      "So I'm here to say I'm sorry." Another big gulp.
      Troop heaved himself slowly off the locker he was sitting on and held out an eleven-inch hand. "I mistrusted 'twould do you sights o' good; an' this shows I weren't mistook in my jedgments[sic]."
      "You're white," said Dan, as Harvey regained the deck, flushed to the tips of his ears.
    • 1916, Julia Frankau, Twilight:
      He's a fine fellow, this Gabriel Stanton, a white man all through
    • 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 12:
      ‘We've only met twice and you've been more than white to me both times.’
  14. 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 […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
      Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this.
  15. (archaic) Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favourable.
    • 1815 February 23, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC ↗:
      On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life.
  16. (obsolete) Regarded with especial favour; favourite; darling.
    • c. 1626, John Ford, Tis Pity She's a Whore:
      I am his white boy, and will not be gulled.
  17. (politics) Pertaining to constitutional or anti-revolutionary political parties or movements.
    • 1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 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.
  18. (of tea) Made from immature leaves and shoots.
  19. (typography) Not containing characters; see white space.
  20. (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"
  21. Characterised by the presence of snow.
    a white Christmas
    a white Easter
  22. (of a set of armor) Alwhite, pertaining to white armor.
Related terms Translations Translations 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.
    • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC ↗:
      The Indians carried first our canoes and then our stores through the brushwood, which is very thick at this point, while we four whites, our rifles on our shoulders, walked between them and any danger coming from the woods.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:white person
  3. Any butterfly of the subfamily Pierinae in the family Pieridae.
  4. (countable and uncountable) White wine.
    • 2014, Maximillian Potter, Shadows in the Vineyard:
      Those were my first impressions of wine: Ladies drink chilled, soft white while they gossip in the kitchen; old men drink strong, room-temperature red to get shellacked.
  5. (countable and uncountable) White coffee
  6. (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.
      • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC ↗, part I, page 203 ↗:
        You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening.
    3. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The cue ball in cue games.
    4. (slang, US, UK) Cocaine.
      Synonyms: Thesaurus:cocaine
    5. The snow- or ice-covered "green" in snow golf.
    6. A white pigment.
      Venice white
    7. A white bean.
  7. (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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene ii]:
      'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.
  8. The enclosed part of a letter of the alphabet, especially when handwritten.
    • 1594, Hugh Plat, chapter 38, in The Jewell House of Art and Nature‎, London, page 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.
    • 1931, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in Police at the Funeral‎, Penguin, published 1939, page 157:
      She copied the whole alphabet like that, as though only the inside whites of the letters registered on her mind.
  9. A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.
    Synonyms: prime
  10. (board games, chess) The person playing with the white set of pieces.
    In this position, white has an opportunity to make a good move.
Translations Translations Translations
  • German: Weißling
Translations Translations Translations Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To make white; to whiten; to bleach.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Matthew 23:27 ↗:
      Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Mark 9:3 ↗:
      so as no fuller on earth can white them
    • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC ↗, part I, page 199 ↗:
      In a very few hours I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre.
White
Etymology 1
  • As an English surname, from Middle English hwit, as a nickname for someone with white hair or pale complexion; in some cases from a personal name of the same meaning.
  • Also as an English surname, from Old English *wiht, found only in placenames, a derivative of the verb wican; compare Wight.
  • As a Scottish Gaelic - and Irish - surname, used as a translation of several Gaelic names containing the element bán and geal, including Mac Giolla bháin (McElwain, Kilbane), Ó Gealagáin (Galligan), Bán (Bane), and Ó Banáin (Bannon).
  • Also as a Scottish and Irish surname, an Anglicization of Irish de Faoite, itself from Anglo-Norman le White, le Whyte, from the same source as the English surname.
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
  2. A locale in the United States:
    1. A minor city in Bartow County, Georgia.
    2. A city in South Dakota, ;.
    3. An unincorporated community in Washington, ;.
    4. A ghost town in Missouri, ;.
Adjective

white (not comparable)

  1. (chiefly, US, sometimes, Canada and UK) Alternative case form of white
Noun

white (plural whites)

  1. Alternative case form of white.
  2. (historical, politics) An anticommunist who fought against the Reds during the Russian Civil War; the term is mostly associated with monarchist forces.
    Hypernyms: anticommunist


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