Now rare or Obs. A pale, yellowish-white face; hence, a person having such a face: a term of contempt.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. v. 158. Out you baggage, You tallow face.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, v. 2237. O, ’tis Fumoso with the tallow-face.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 127. The entrance … neer which is hung a mirrour whether to admire their tallow faces in, or internal deformities, I know not.
So Tallow-faced a., having a tallow-face.
1592. Greene, Disput., etc., 17. The Paynters coulde not … make away theyr Vermiglion, if tallowe facde whoores vsde it not for their cheekes.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. IV. i. (1651), 519. Every Lover admires his Mistress, though she be … pale, red, yellow, tand, tallow-faced.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 446. A deformed, thin, tallow-faced fellow, he looks like a Ghost.
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., II. viii. It was the tallow-faced man.
1887 Adelaide D. Kingsley, Heart or Purse, vi. 61. She only recalled her as a gaunt, tallow-faced girl, with great black eyes and a disagreeable fancy that everybody ought to obey her.
