WHITE

Definitions

1. 1. Reflecting to the eye all the rays of the spectrum combined; not tinted with any of the proper colors or their mixtures; having the color of pure snow; snowy; -- the opposite of Ant: black or dark; as, white paper; a white skin. "Pearls white." Chaucer. White as the whitest lily on a stream. Longfellow.
2. 2. Destitute of color, as in the cheeks, or of the tinge of blood color; pale; pallid; as, white with fear. Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! They come! they come!" Byron.
3. 3. Having the color of purity; free from spot or blemish, or from guilt or pollution; innocent; pure. White as thy fame, and as thy honor clear. Dryden. No whiter page than Addison's remains. Pope.
4. 4. Gray, as from age; having silvery hair; hoary. Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head So old and white as this. Shak.
5. 5. Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favorable. On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life. Sir W. Scott.
6. 6. Regarded with especial favor; favorite; darling. Come forth, my white spouse. Chaucer. I am his white boy, and will not be gullet. Ford.
7. 7. A hard, silvery-white cast iron containing a large proportion of combined carbon. -- White iron pyrites (Min.), marcasite. -- White land, a tough clayey soil, of a whitish hue when dry, but blackish after rain. [Eng.] -- White lark (Zoöl.), the snow bunting. -- White lead. (a) A carbonate of lead much used in painting, and for other purposes; ceruse. (b) (Min.) Native lead carbonate; cerusite. -- White leather, buff leather; leather tanned with alum and salt. -- White leg (Med.), milk leg. See under Milk. -- White lettuce (Bot.), rattlesnake root. See under Rattlesnake. -- White lie. See under Lie. -- White light. (a) (Physics) Light having the different colors in the same proportion as in the light coming directly from the sun, without having been decomposed, as by passing through a prism. See the Note under Color, n., 1. (b) A kind of firework which gives a brilliant white illumination for signals, etc. -- White lime, a solution or preparation of lime for whitewashing; whitewash. -- White line (Print.), a void space of the breadth of a line, on a printed page; a blank line. -- White meat. (a) Any light-colored flesh, especially of poultry.
8. 8. Food made from milk or eggs, as butter, cheese, etc. Driving their cattle continually with them, and feeding only upon their milk and white meats. Spenser. -- White merganser (Zoöl.), the smew. -- White metal. (a) Any one of several white alloys, as pewter, britannia, etc. (b) (Metal.) A fine grade of copper sulphide obtained at a certain stage in copper smelting. -- White miller. (Zoöl.) (a) The common clothes moth. (b) A common American bombycid moth (Spilosoma Virginica) which is pure white with a few small black spots; -- called also ermine moth, and virgin moth. See Woolly bear, under Woolly. -- White money, silver money. -- White mouse (Zoöl.), the albino variety of the common mouse. -- White mullet (Zoöl.), a silvery mullet (Mugil curema) ranging from the coast of the United States to Brazil; -- called also blue- back mullet, and liza. -- White nun (Zoöl.), the smew; -- so called from the white crest and the band of black feathers on the back of its head, which give the appearance of a hood. -- White oak. (Bot.) See under Oak. -- White owl. (Zoöl.) (a) The snowy owl. (b) The barn owl. -- White partridge (Zoöl.), the white ptarmigan. -- White perch. (Zoöl.) (a) A North American fresh-water bass (Morone Americana) valued as a food fish. (b) The croaker, or fresh- water drum. (c) Any California surf fish. -- White pine. (Bot.) See the Note under Pine. -- White poplar (Bot.), a European tree (Populus alba) often cultivated as a shade tree in America; abele. -- White poppy (Bot.), the opium-yielding poppy. See Poppy. -- White powder, a kind of gunpowder formerly believed to exist, and to have the power of exploding without noise. [Obs.] A pistol charged with white powder. Beau. & Fl. -- White precipitate. (Old Chem.) See under Precipitate. -- White rabbit. (Zoöl.) (a) The American northern hare in its winter pelage. (b) An albino rabbit. -- White rent, (a) (Eng. Law) Formerly, rent payable in silver; -- opposed to black rent. See Blackmail, n., 3. (b) A rent, or duty, of eight pence, payable yearly by every tinner in Devon and Cornwall to the Duke of Cornwall, as lord of the soil. [Prov. Eng.] -- White rhinoceros. (Zoöl.) (a) The one-horned, or Indian, rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Indicus). See Rhinoceros. (b) The umhofo. -- White ribbon, the distinctive badge of certain organizations for the promotion of temperance or of moral purity; as, the White-ribbon Army. -- White rope (Naut.), untarred hemp rope. -- White rot. (Bot.) (a) Either of several plants, as marsh pennywort and butterwort, which were thought to produce the disease called rot in sheep. (b) A disease of grapes. See White rot, under Rot. -- White sage (Bot.), a white, woolly undershrub (Eurotia lanata) of Western North America; -- called also winter fat. -- White salmon (Zoöl.), the silver salmon. -- White salt, salt dried and calcined; decrepitated salt. -- White scale (Zoöl.), a scale insect (Aspidiotus Nerii) injurious to the orange tree. See Orange scale, under Orange. -- White shark (Zoöl.), a species of man-eating shark. See under Shark. -- White softening. (Med.) See Softening of the brain, under Softening. -- White spruce. (Bot.) See Spruce, n., 1. -- White squall (Naut.), a sudden gust of wind, or furious blow, which comes up without being marked in its approach otherwise than by whitecaps, or white, broken water, on the surface of the sea. -- White staff, the badge of the lord high treasurer of England. Macaulay. -- White stork (Zoöl.), the common European stork. -- White sturgeon. (Zoöl.) See Shovelnose (d). -- White sucker. (Zoöl.) (a) The common sucker. (b) The common red horse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum). -- White swelling (Med.), a chronic swelling of the knee, produced by a strumous inflammation of the synovial membranes of the kneejoint and of the cancellar texture of the end of the bone forming the kneejoint; -- applied also to a lingering chronic swelling of almost any kind. -- White tombac. See Tombac. -- White trout (Zoöl.), the white weakfish, or silver squeteague (Cynoscion nothus), of the Southern United States. -- White vitriol (Chem.), hydrous sulphate of zinc. See White vitriol, under Vitriol. -- White wagtail (Zoöl.), the common, or pied, wagtail. -- White wax, beeswax rendered white by bleaching. -- White whale (Zoöl.), the beluga. -- White widgeon (Zoöl.), the smew. -- White wine. any wine of a clear, transparent color, bordering on white, as Madeira, sherry, Lisbon, etc.; -- distinguished from wines of a deep red color, as port and Burgundy. "White wine of Lepe." Chaucer. -- White witch, a witch or wizard whose supernatural powers are supposed to be exercised for good and beneficent purposes. Addison. Cotton Mather. -- White wolf. (Zoöl.) (a) A light-colored wolf (Canis laniger) native of Thibet; -- called also chanco, golden wolf, and Thibetan wolf. (b) The albino variety of the gray wolf. -- White wren (Zoöl.), the willow warbler; -- so called from the color of the under parts.