White

White, hwīt, adj. of the colour of pure snow: pale, pallid: colourless: pure: unblemished: purified from sin: bright: burnished without ornament: transparent and colourless, as of wine: pertaining to the Carmelite monks: gracious, favourable: (U.S.) reliable, honest.—n. the colour of snow: anything white, as a white man, the mark at which an arrow is shot, the albuminous part of an egg.—v.t. to make white.—ns. White′-alloy′, a cheap alloy used to imitate silver; White′-ant, a termite.—adj. White′-backed, having the back white or marked with white.—ns. White′bait, the name by which the fry of the herring and sprat are known in the market, and when served for the table, esp. in London; White′-bass, a silvery serranoid fish of the American Great Lake region.—adj. White′-beaked, having a white beak.—ns. White′-bear, the polar bear; White′-beard, an old man.-adjs. White′-beard′ed; White′-bell′ied; White′-billed.—ns. White′boy, a member of an association of Irish peasants first formed in County Tipperary about 1761—wearing white shirts—long noted for agrarian outrages; White′boyism, the principles of the Whiteboys; White′-brass, an alloy of copper and zinc.—adj. White′-breast′ed.—n.pl. White′caps (U.S.), the name given to a self-constituted committee of persons who generally commit outrageous acts under the guise of serving the community.—ns. White′chapel-cart, a light two-wheeled spring-cart much used by London butchers, grocers, &c.; White′-copp′er, a light-coloured alloy of copper.—adjs. White′-crest′ed, -crowned, having the crest or crown white—of birds.—n.pl. White′-crops, grain, as barley, rye, wheat.—ns. White′-damp, carbonic oxide, a poisonous but not inflammable gas found in coal-mines in the after-damp; White′-el′ephant (see Elephant).—adjs. White′-faced, having a face pale with fear or from illness: with white front, forehead—also White′-front′ed; White′-fā′voured, wearing white favours.—ns. White′-feath′er (see Feather); White′fish, a general name for such fish as the whiting, haddock, menhaden, &c.: the largest of all the Coregoni or American lake whitefish; White′friar, one of the Carmelite order of friars, so called from their white dress.—adj. White′-hand′ed, having white hands unstained with guilt.—ns. White′-hass (Scot.), an oatmeal and suet pudding; White′head, the blue-winged snow-goose: a breed of domestic pigeons, a white-tailed monk; White′-heat, the degree of heat at which bodies become white; White′-herr′ing, a fresh or uncured herring; White′-hon′eysuckle, the clammy azalea; White′-horse, the name applied to a figure of a horse on a hillside, formed by removing the turf so as to show the underlying chalk—the most famous in Berkshire, at Uffington, traditionally supposed to commemorate Alfred the Great's victory of Ashdown (871)—periodically 'scoured' or cleaned from turf, &c.—adj. White′-hot.—ns. White′-īron, pig-iron in which the carbon is almost entirely in chemical combination with the iron; White′-lā′dy, a spectral figure which appears in many of the castles of Germany, as at Ansbach, Baireuth, Altenburg, &c., by night as well as by day, particularly when the death of any member of the family is imminent; White′-land, land with a stiff clayey soil white when dry; White′lead, a carbonate of lead used in painting white; White′-leath′er (see Leather); White′-leg, an ailment of women after parturition—also Milk-leg; White′-lie (see Lie); White′-light, ordinary sunlight; White′-lime, whitewash.—adjs. White′-limed, whitewashed; White′-list′ed, having white lists or stripes on a darker ground; White′-liv′ered, having a pale look, so called because thought to be caused by a white liver: cowardly: malicious; White′ly (Shak.), coming near to white, white-faced.—ns. White′-meat, food made of milk, butter, eggs, &c.: the flesh of poultry, rabbits, veal, &c.; White′-met′al, a general name for alloys of light colour.—v.t. Whī′ten, to make white: to bleach.—v.i. to become or turn white.—ns. Whīt′ener; White′ness; White′-pot, a Devonshire dish of sliced rolls, milk, eggs, sugar, &c. baked; White′-precip′itate, a white mercurial preparation used externally; White′-pyrī′tes, marcasite; White′-rent, the tinner's poll-tax of eightpence to the Duke of Cornwall: rent paid in silver.—adj. White′-rumped.—ns. Whites (see Leucorrhœa); White′-salt, salt dried and calcined; White′smith, a worker in tinned or white iron: a tinsmith; White′-squall (see Squall); White′stone, granulite; White′-swell′ing, a disease of the joints, esp. the knee, in which the synovial membrane passes into pulpy degeneration; White′thorn, the common hawthorn; White′throat, a bird of the same genus as the Blackcap, having the breast and belly of a brownish-white; White′-vit′riol, sulphate of zinc; White′wash, slaked quicklime, reduced to the consistency of milk by means of water, used for colouring walls and as a disinfectant: a wash for the skin: false colouring.—v.t. to cover with whitewash: to give a fair appearance to.—ns. White′washer, one who whitewashes; White′-wa′ter, shoal water near the shore, breakers: the foaming water in rapids, &c.; White′-wax, bleached beeswax: Chinese wax, or pela; White′-wine, any wine of clear transparent colour, as hock, &c.; White′wing, the velvet scoter, scurf-duck: the chaffinch.—adj. White′-winged.—ns. White′wood, a name applied to a large number of trees or their timber—the American tulip-tree, white-wood cedar, cheesewood, &c.; Whī′ting, a small sea-fish allied to the cod, so called from its white colour: ground chalk free from stony matter and other impurities, extensively used as a size-colour, &c.—also White′ning, and Spanish white, Paris white (the finest); Whī′ting-time (Shak.), bleaching-time.—adj. Whī′tish, somewhat white.—ns. Whī′tishness; Whīt′ster (Shak.), a bleacher of cloth or clothes.—adjs. Whī′ty, whitish; Whī′ty-brown, white with a tinge of brown.—White-headed eagle, the North American bald eagle; White horse, a white-topped wave; White House, a popular name of the official residence of the President of the United States at Washington; White of an egg, the albumen, the pellucid viscous fluid surrounding the yolk; White of the eye, that part of the ball of the eye which surrounds the iris or coloured part.—China white, a very pure variety of whitelead—also Silver white and French white; Pearl white, the basic nitrate of bismuth used as a cosmetic; Zinc white, impure oxide of zinc.—Mark with a white stone (see Stone); Show the white feather (see Feather). [A.S. hwít; Ice. hvitr, Ger. weiss.]