Forms: see WHITE a. [Various absolute uses of WHITE a. Cf. L. album, F. blanc BLANK sb.]
1. The translucent viscous fluid surrounding the yolk of an egg, which becomes white when coagalated; = ALBUMEN 1. Usually in full, the white of an egg (or, as a substance, white or the white of egg), pl. whites of eggs.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 342. Ʒedo æʓes hwit to.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 40. On anum æʓe … þæt hwite ne bið ʓemenged to ðam ʓeolcan.
a. 1300. Fragm. Pop. Sci. (Wright), 240. As the white goth aboute the ȝolke.
14[?]. Stockholm Med. MS., I. 432, in Anglia, XVIII. 306. With eyes qwytys do cleryn es clene.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 24. Take whyȝte of eyren harde soþun.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 30. Putte þerto als miche of whites of eiren, wele y-bette and scomed.
1528. Paynell, Salerne’s Regim. (1540), 20 b. The yolke is temperately hotte; The whyte is colde and clammye.
1535. Coverdale, Job vi. 6. What taist hath ye whyte within the yoke an egg?
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. vii. 106 (Qo.). Ile fetch some flaxe and whites of egges to apply to his bleeding face.
1629. Z. Boyd, Last Battell, 701. Like a squissed egge, whose yolke is mingled with its white.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), II. I. vi. 462. A mucus … like the white of an egg.
1883. Hardwich’s Photogr. Chem. (ed. 9), 31. The white of egg, which is a very pure form of Albumen.
2. The white part (sclerotic coat) of the eyeball, surrounding the colored iris. Usually in full, the white of the eye, pl. the whites of the eyes.
Often in to turn up the whites of one’s eyes and similar phrases (usually, in affected devotion, but also in death, in astonishment, horror, etc.).
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 19. A watir þat comeþ bitwene þe white or þe iȝen & þe appil.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 634/5. Hec albugo, wyte of the hee.
1448–9. Metham, Amoryus & Cleopes, 1739. Amoryus vpward had turnyd the qwyght Off hys eyn:… qwan sche sey hym ded Her chekys sche gan tere.
c. 1480. Henryson, Fox, Wolf, & Cadger, 103 (Harl. MS.). The quhite he turnit vp of his ene tway.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 55. If he [sc. a sheep] … haue reed stryndes in the white of the eye, than he is sounde.
1594. Nashe, Terrors of Night, Wks. (Grosart), III. 280. Enthronizing graue zeale and religion on the eleuated whites of their eyes.
a. 1600. Grim the Collier of Croydon, III. He, poor Heart, no sooner heard my newes, But turns me up his Whites, and falls flat down.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XI. xxxvii. I. 334. The ball or apple in the middest [of the eye] is ordinarily of another colour than the white about it.
1657. Heylin, Ecclesia Vind., 349. Lifting up both his hands, and whites to heaven.
1725. Bradley’s Fam. Dict., s.v. Signs of Sickness, When a Sick Horse turns up the Whites of his Eyes above, you may conclude that he is in Pain.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Cl., 10 June. Mrs. Tabitha … threw up the whites of her eyes, as if in the act of ejaculation.
1795. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Sat., Wks. 1812, III. 409. Flimsy logic to surprise And raise the whites of Country Members’ eyes.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., xi. 108. The Professor showed the whites of his eyes devoutly.
1889. Kipling, Ball. East & West, 28. And when he could spy the white of her [sc. the mare’s] eye, he made the pistol crack.
Phr. [Cf. BLACK a. 12.] 1796. Grose’s Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 3), s.v. Black Eye, He cannot say black is the white of my eye; he cannot point out a blot in my character.
1828. G. Smeeton, Doings in London, 85. As Mother Cole said, during that time, ‘no one could say black was the white of her eye.’
3. The white or light-colored part of some substance or structure, as flesh, wood, etc.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 14. Take þe Whyte of the lekys.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 793/11. Hoc mulsum, the wyle of botyr.
1552. Huloet, s.v. Oister, The white vnder the fysh cleauynge to the shell.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 118. White … like the white of a Custard.
a. 1756. Eliza Haywood, New Present (1771), 159. Mince … the white of a chicken.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 95. The wood next the bark of a tree, called the white, or alburnum.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., White, a name given by butchers to that piece of beef which joins the round: i. e. the flank.
† 4. A white spot or mark. Obs.
1551. Knaresb. Wills (Surtees), I. 59. One oxe stirke with a whitte in his forehede.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 38/1. Exortus,… the white growing in the naile.
1623. Cockeram, III. Selenite, a stone wherein is a white, that decreaseth and encreaseth as the Moone groweth.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2280. A bay Nag … a white in one of his Eyes.
5. Archery. a. The white target usually placed on the butt. arch. or Hist.
[1456, a. 1533: see 6.]
1577. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Chron., 467. They behaued themselues no more nor no lesse with the Germaines, then an archer with a white at a Butt.
1583. Greene, Mamillia, 16 b. When the string is broken, it is hard to hit the white.
1618. Bolton, Florus, III. viii. (1636), 195. A Boy gets no morsell at his Mothers hands, but that of which she makes a white, and which himselfe must hit.
1654. Gataker, Disc. Apol., 39. An Archer,… when he hath hit the white or cloven the peg.
1714. E. Ward, Field-Spy, 13. I turn’d my Head to see the doughty Knight Stand ready drawn to hit the distant White.
1831. Scott, Cast. Dang., viii. A good archer … who … seldom missed a handsbreadth of the white.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. i. No marksman had hit the white.
b. In modern practice, a circular band of white on the target, or each of two such bands (inner and outer white); hence, a shot that hits this white.
1687. in Gent. Mag. (1832), CII. I. 600/2. The third circumference, being usually knowne … by the name of the inner white…. The fifth circle, being white, and usually called … the outer-white.
1865. Archer’s Reg., 25. Ladies’ Prizes … Miss Betham (less 113 for blacks and whites), 558.
6. fig. (or in fig. context). Now rare or Obs.
1456. Sir G. Haye, Gov. Princes, Wks. (S.T.S.), II. 149. He that tuichis nerest the quhite and best gais nere the merche.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), D ii. The life of the prince is but a whyte, for all other to shote at.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 407. If the eye of man be the arrow, and beautie the white.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., V. ii. 186. ’Twas I wonne the wager, though you hit the white.
1597. Baeton, Auspicante Iehoua, Wks. (Grosart), II. 11/1. Bee Thou … the note of my comfort, the white of my loue, and the light of my lyfe.
1656. Cowley, Pindar. Odes, 2nd Olympique, x. Let Agrigentum be the But, And Theron be the White.
1698. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1707), IV. 166. So the subject of the following Discourse may be the more distinct, and we may have a clearer White for our mark.
1862. B. Taylor, At Home & Abr., Ser. II. 411. His [sc. Browning’s] faculty of hitting the target of expression full in the white, by a single arrowy word.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 294. Byron hit the white, which he often shot very wide of…, when he called Rome ‘my country.’
7. a. Printing. The blank space in certain letters or types; a space left blank between words or lines (= WHITE LINE 2).
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., III. 42. If the whites of certaine letters bee made of one equall bignesse with the o.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxii. ¶ 4. In Marginal Notes … the White between Words is often … greater than between Line and Line.
1808. Stower, Printers’ Gram., 163. To a solid page, two leads make the usual white after the head.
1885. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Rec., IV. 213/1. (Electro-typing) It will be found that the ‘whites’ have been almost sufficiently raised.
b. Drawing, etc. pl. White or blank parts.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. 421. If a plate is over-exposed the image will come up quickly, the whites will be muddy, and the blacks lacking in richness.
1894. Daily News, 26 June, 6/5. The Horses of Rhesus…. An ambitious picture of large size painted by Mr. Harington Bird, A.R.C.A…. The scheme of whites appears to be well managed.
8. White cloth or textile fabric: applied spec., with or without defining word, to various particular kinds; often in pl.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 11923. Cope & oþer cloþes, hii lete make of wit.
1466. Paston Lett., II. 266. For xxiiii. yerdes of brod wythtys for gowns.
1503. Privy Purse Exp. Eliz. York (1830), 104. For v yerdes of Streyt white.
1594. Norden, Spec. Brit., Essex (Camden), 9. Cogshull, wher are made the best whites in Englande.
1621. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 45/1. Exceptis mantelliis lie plaidis et lie Galloway quhyte.
1742. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 3), III. 134. Cloth in Imitation of Gloucester Whites.
1754. Pococke, Trav. (Camden), II. 135. They … make … cloths called Salisbury whites for the Turkey trade.
9. White clothing, apparel or array: usually in phr. in white.
[c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 198. Hwite oððe beorhte hine ʓescrydan wynsumnysse ʓetacnað.]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 18772. Bi-side þam stode tua men in quite.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 321. Whan Pilatus sente Iesus i-cloþed in white to Herodes.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., in Macro Plays, 76. Þe iiij dowteris schul be clad in mentelys; Merci in wyth, Rythwysnesse in red [etc.].
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 228. On the Assencion day folowyng, the kyng ware whyte for mournyng.
1680. C. Nesse, Ch. Hist., 272. Having decked her self with the White of Simplicity.
1768. Goldsm., Good-n. Man, IV. It’s the worst luck in the world [to be married] in anything but white.
1815. Ann. Reg., Chron., 49/2. The pall was supported by six young females attired in white.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 1152. She herself in white.
b. pl. White garments or vestments: chiefly in specific uses, esp. (a) surplices worn by clergymen, choristers, etc. (now chiefly Hist.); (b) white trousers or breeches.
1622. S. Ward, Life of Faith in Death, 124. If we throughly beleeued … this to bee the state of our … dead friends,… could we … mourne for them in blacks, whiles they are in whites?
1633. Chas. I., in Bibliotheca Regia (1659), 122. That the Dean of our Chapel … come … thither to Prayers upon Sundaies … in his Whites.
1780. A. Young, Tour Irel., I. 283. The girls … in their striped linens and whites.
1818. Lady Morgan, Autobiogr. (1859), 184. His tight whites and tight silk stockings showed his colossal legs … to great advantage.
1828. A. Jolly, Sunday Services (1848), 220. [The newly baptized] appeared at church … in their whites.
1840. Thackeray, Barber Cox, Sept. I felt myself suddenly jerked by the waistband of my whites.
1840. J. T. J. Hewlett, P. Priggins, xvi. Having his immaculate whites spotted and splashed by the spirts of Stephen, who … pulled stroke.
1882. ‘Edna Lyall,’ Donovan, vi. They say the [choir-]boys in their whites is very attractive.
† c. A white badge. Obs.
1647. in Clarendon’s State Papers (1773), II. App. p. xlii. Perceiving Lilburne’s regiment … to appear … with Whites in their hats.
1651. Lanc. Tracts Civil War (Chetham Soc.), 307. The enemies word was ‘Iesu,’ and their signal a White about their Arme.
10. † Silver money, ‘silver’ collectively, as distinguished from red or yellow = gold (obs.); also (with pl.) a silver coin (slang).
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1384. They shul for-go þe white and eke þe rede.
1390. [see RED sb. 3 a].
c. 1676. Roxb. Ball. (1889), VI. 15. A sawcy fellow! Come to me without his white and yellow.
1823. ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, 194. Whites, in the language of smashers, ‘small whites’ are shillings, ‘large whites’ half-crowns.
b. = BLANK sb. 1. Hist.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., III. 79. ’Twas made Felony … to pay or receive a certain base Coyn, call’d Blank or Whites.
1877. Stevenson, New Arab. Nts., Lodging for Nt. Two of the small coins that went by the name of whites.
11. = WHITE WINE.
c. 1386. [see RED sb. 3 b].
1610. T. Cocks, Diary (1901), 95. A quarte of white, to make my skurvye-grasse drincke.
c. 1640. Capt. Underwit, IV. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., II. 375. The Stillyards Reanish wine and Divells white.
1720. E. Ward, Delights of Bottle, 37. Where ev’ry one that’s low in Spirits, May be reliev’d by Whites or Clarets.
1842. [see RED sb. 3 b].
12. An animal of a species, breed or variety distinguished by white color; a white horse (obs.), butterfly, pigeon, pig, dog, cat, etc. (Chiefly as a fanciers’ abbreviation.)
1530. Palsgr., 288/2. White, a horse of white colour, cheual blanc, liart.
1834. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. No. 2. 51. This fish I consider to be the S. albus of Fleming, the Herling … of the Scotch side of the Solway Frith,… the White or Phinnock of Pennant.
1857. Gosse, Omphalos, xi. 307. We never find the egg of the Peacock Butterfly adhering to the leaf of a cabbage, nor that of the Garden White to the leaf of a nettle.
1879. L. Wright, Pigeon Keeper, 96. Whites are … usually bred together.
1898. Daily News, 5 Dec., 8/5. Pigs share in the progressive movement, middle whites and large whites being newly raised to the dignity of separate classification.
1907. R. Leighton’s New Bk. Dog, 429. The litter will consist of some whole-coloured blacks, and some whole-coloured whites.
13. A white man; a person of a race distinguished by light complexion: see WHITE a. 4.
Poor whites = ‘poor white folks’ (see WHITE a. 4).
1671. Charante, Let. conc. Customs Tafiletta, 10. After him raigned his Brother Muley Elwaly, who was a White, his Mother a Spanish Moor.
1726. Adv. Capt. R. Boyle (1744), 155. There may be about 20000 Whites (or I should say Portuguese, for they are none of the whitest,) and about treble that Number of Slaves.
1826. J. F. Cooper, Last of Mohicans, xiv. Red-skins and whites.
1879. Sir G. Campbell, White & Black, 163. A large number of very inferior whites, known as ‘mean whites,’ ‘white trash,’ and so on.
1888. Churchward, Blackbirding, 7. Having been longer in Samoa than any live white in the place.
14. † (a) A white square on a chessboard. (b) with the: Either of the white balls in billiards.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., xxi. Þe quene, that goth fro blak to blak, or fro white to white.
1562. Rowbothum, Cheasts, A v b. Because of his [sc. the knight’s] marching forth, whiche is made from three into three places, to witte, from whyte into blacke, and from black into whyte.
1614. Saul, Chesse-play, To Rdr. The Bishop blacke in blacke must march … For in the white he may not come.
1750. ‘Philidor,’ Chess Anal. (1773), 7, note. When your Bishop runs upon White, you must strive to put your Pawn always upon Black.
1856. ‘Capt. Crawley,’ Billiards (1858), 29. I attempted a difficult cannon off the white.
1873. Bennett & ‘Cavendish,’ Billiards, 213. The white will travel slowly on to the spot-white.
15. a. Applied variously to any white body or substance: see quots.
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, II. iii. L iij b. That … thou mayste haue a place worthy for the in our whyte…. (Lyke as the pretours of Rome dyd set those mens names in a table hyghest, whose causes shulde first be pleaded,… whiche table was called Album prætoris .i. the whyte or table of the pretour).
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. lxxi. 413. Hauing at their extremities … certayne whites fashioned like gripes, or clawes.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 237. Like as the windes driue whites from top of thistle Cardus.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, Rhyme Three Sealers. They groped through the whirling white [i.e., mist].
† (b) To spit white: to eject frothy-white sputum from a dry mouth. (Cf. to spit sixpences s.v. SIXPENCE 2 d.) Obs.
[1594. Lyly, Mother Bombie, III. ii. Ri. … We dyd but a little parboile our liuers, they haue sod theyrs in sacke these fortie yeeres. Hal. That makes them spit white broth as they doo.]
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 237. If it bee a hot day, if I brandish any thing but my Bottle, would I might neuer spit white againe.
1622. Massinger & Dekker, Virg. Mart., III. iii. Had I bin a Pagan stil, I could not haue spit white for want of drinke.
b. As a specific name (chiefly in pl.) for various manufactured articles and products of a white color; e.g., pins, sugar, flour, etc.
1690[?]. Pinmakers’ Case in oppos. to Killigrew’s Bill (Broadside, Brit. Mus.). Double long whites alias Calkins.
1826. Haberdasher’s Guide, 19. Short Whites, a smaller pin.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 14. The same rule of storing a quantity … is followed in regard to them as with the whites [sc. turnips].
1883. N. D. Davis, Cavaliers & Roundheads in Barbados, 34. Not only were muscovadoes made, but the manufacture of ‘whites’ was accomplished.
1896. Daily News, 8 Dec., 11/5. At a meeting of the London Flour Millers’ Association,… the following prices were fixed:—Town households, 28s.; whites, 31s.
16. pl. A popular name for leucorrhœa or ‘white flux’ (WHITE a. II e).
1572. J. Jones, Bathes Buckstones, 4 b. Such as haue their whites too abundant.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health, 147. Barren women, and such as are troubled with the whites.
1683. Digby, Chym. Secr., II. 264. It cures … the Whites in Women.
1758. J. S., trans. Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), Dict. Cc 2, Leucorhæ, the Fluor Albus, or Whites in Women.
1822–9. Good, Study Med., V. 68. Among novices there is some difficulty in distinguishing the discharge of whites from that of blenorrhœa.
17. White color or hue; white coloration or appearance; whiteness. Sometimes semi-concr.
c. 1000. in Anglia, I. 285. Hwit asolað, nitor squalescit.
a. 1225. [see BLACK sb. 1].
c. 1315. Shoreham, VII. 544. Swyþe fayr þyng hys þat wyte, And þer by-syde blak…; Þe wyte hyt þe uayrer makeþ.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 46. In kertles and in Copes riche Thei weren clothed, alle liche, Departed evene of whyt and blew.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 10970. All þaire colouris … were of cleane white.
a. 1461. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 241. Wyghte is wyghte, ȝyf yt [ys] leyd to blake.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 138. So depe a Snowe, that all the ground was covered with white.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 398. Teaching the sheets a whiter hew then white.
1592. G. Harvey, Four Lett., Sonn. xi. Wks. (Grosart), I. 244. That whitest white on Earth.
1704. Newton, Optics (1721), 133. Before I told him what the Colours were…. I asked him, Which of the two Whites were the best?
1734. Poor Robin, Feb., A 6. It fills the Ditch with either black or white [= rain or snow].
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer., IV. I. 301. Their skin is covered with a fine hairy down of a chalky white.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, etc., iii. 175. We must take black and white into our list, as colours with the painter, though not with the optician.
1847. W. C. L. Martin, The Ox, 61/1. A broad line of white along the back.
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, 141. The curl’d white of the coming wave.
1868. W. B. Marriott, Vestiar. Christ., Introd. p. xvii. In the ancient world generally, white was regarded as the colour especially appropriate to things divine, and to religious worship.
b. Whiteness or fairness of complexion.
In first quot. perh. confused with WLITE.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 56. Nu cumeð forð a feble mon,… & wule iseon ȝunge ancren, & loken … hu hire hwite like him, þet naueð nout hire leor uorbernd iðe sunne. Ibid., 98. ‘Þi stefne is me swete, & ti hwite schene.’… ‘vox tua dulcis, & facies tua decora.’
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 626. White of þe face, albucies.
1578. H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 225. The princesse blushing with roseall shame whyche beautified hir naturall white.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, XII. 102. Varying her Cheeks by Turns, with white and red.
1816. Byron, Parisina, x. The smoothest white That e’er did softest kiss invite.
c. fig. (or in fig. context) as a symbol of purity, goodness, truth, joy, etc.
[c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 694. Whijt … bytokneþ clennes in soule.]
1637. Rutherford, Lett. to Ld. Craighall, 10 Aug. Some few years will bring us all out in our black’s and white’s before our Judge.
1649. T. Ford, Lusus Fort., 46. Our life is chequerd with the whites of pleasure and delight, and the blacks of sorrow and pain.
1680. C. Nesse, Ch. Hist., 110. God Chequered his Providences … with the Black of Misery, and with the White of Mercy.
1818. Keats, Endym., III. 402. I loved her to the very white of truth.
d. Proverbial phr. To call white black, to turn white into black (and vice versa). Cf. WHITE a. 1 d.
1534. More, Comf. agst. Trib., I. x. (1553), B viij b. More coumfort may he haue in his heart, that where whyte is called blacke … abydeth by the trueth.
1672. W. Walker, Parœm., 33. They turn black into white, and white into black. Nigra in candida vertunt, Juv.
1829. Southey, All for Love, IX. xxix. To prove … That right is wrong, and wrong is right, And white is black, and black is white.
18. A white pigment; often with defining word denoting a particular kind, as Chinese, flake, Paris, pearl, Spanish, Venice white, etc.: see these words.
1546. [see SPANISH a. 7].
1650. Norgate, Miniatura (1919), 93. Whyte lead ground with Nutt oyle maketh a perfect Whyte.
1731. Art of Drawing & Paint., 20. These Colours … to shade the Whites.
1847. Smeaton, Builder’s Man., 139. The first white that was discovered … was extracted from the calx of lead.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Painting, 293. The terrene whites, from their alkaline nature, are injurious to many colours in water.
b. Her. Used by some modern writers for a white tincture reckoned among the furs, as distinct from argent.
1777. Porny, Her. (ed. 3), 25. White, the natural colour of a little beast called Ermine,… is only to be termed so, when it is used for the doubling of Mantles.
19. A designation for a member of any one of certain political parties (from the color of the badge worn, cf. WHITE a. 6 b); esp. an Italian Ghibelline, or a Spanish Legitimist.
1680. C. Nesse, Ch. Hist., 428. The Guelphs … and the Gibellines,… the Black and the White (as those Two Factions were called).
1849. J. A. Carlyle, trans. Dante’s Inf., 64, note. Florence was divided by two factions, the Neri and Bianchi, or Blacks and Whites.
1889. Daily News, 4 Oct., 5/1. Mr. FRANCILLON, as a true white—which is, in a sense, of an infinitely more intense shade of Conservatism than the truest blue—cannot conceal his displeasure with the Scots.
1892. Nation (N.Y.), 8 Sept., 177/1. The party of the Whites of Spain had been thrown into disorder by the Pope’s declarations in favor of the Republic.
1918. Times, 9 April, 6/4. Germany, on the other hand, not only gave prompt recognition, but promised immediately to supply the Whites [of Finland] with arms and food.
20. Short for white squadron: see WHITE a. 11 e.
[16[?]. in A. Macgeorge, Flags (1881), 69. The Lord Harvey was Rear Admirall in ye Repulse bearing the king’s usual colours in his mizen, and a white flag in the maine topp, and was Admirall of ye squadron of white colours.]
1704. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit. (ed. 21), 572. Admirals of the Fleet … White, Sir Cloudesly Shovel, Admiral. James Wishart, Esq. Vice-Admiral.
1751. Crt. & City Reg., 168. A List of the Admirals of the Royal Navy of Great Britain…. Admirals of the White.
c. 1815. Jane Austen, Persuasion, iii. He is rear admiral of the white.
21. The player who holds the white pieces at chess or any similar game.
1750. ‘Philidor,’ Chess Analysed (1773), 59. I have no need to go further in this Game, since it is evident that the White must win.
1808. Hoyle’s Game of Chess, 32. White has the best of the game.
1867. Bohn’s Hand-bk. Games, 460. (Draughts) White to move and win.
22. Phrases. In black and white: see BLACK a. 15 b, c. In the white: said of cloth in an undyed state; hence of manufactured articles generally in an unfinished state. (Cf. quot. 1846 in WHITE a. 2.) † White and black, name of some game.
1555. Act 2 & 3 Phil. & Mary, c. 9. Bowlyng Tenyse Dysyng White & Blacke Making & Marryng, & other unlaufull Games.
1810. Risdon’s Surv. Devon, p. xxv. The articles … are merely manufactured here, and sent in the white to London, where they are dyed.
1876. F. S. Williams, Midl. Railw., 636. Furniture, made in London, but unfinished,—‘in the white’ it is called.
23. Comb. white-exceeding a. (poet.), exceeding or surpassing white, ‘whiter than white.’
a. 1618. Sylvester, Ode to Astræa, Wks. (Grosart), II. 50/2. The white-exceeding skin Of thy neck and dimpled chin.
