Etimology
From Middle English whit, hwit, from Old English hwīt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt, from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweydós, a byform of *ḱweytós (“bright; shine”). Cognate with West Frisian wyt, Dutch wit, German weiß, Norwegian Bokmål hvit, Norwegian Nynorsk kvit; also Lithuanian šviẽsti (“to gleam”), šviesa (“light”), Old Church Slavonic свѣтъ (světŭ, “light”), свѣтьлъ (světĭlŭ, “clear, bright”), Persian سفید (sefid), Avestan 𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬉𐬙𐬀 (spaēta, “white”), Sanskrit श्वेत (śvetá, “white, bright”).
adjective
white (comparative whiter or more white, superlative whitest or most white)
Bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
(sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to Europeans or those of European descent, regardless if their skin has cool or warm undertones.
(sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to Caucasians (people with white complexion and European ancestry):.
(sometimes capitalized) By U.S. Census Bureau definition, of or relating to people hailing from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
(chiefly historical) Designated for use by Caucasians.
Relatively light or pale in colour.
Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
(of a person or skin) Lacking coloration (tan) from ultraviolet light; not tanned.
(of an animal) Affected by leucism.
(of coffee or tea) Containing cream, milk, or creamer.
(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.
Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in white habits; Cistercian.
Honourable, fair; decent.
Grey, as from old age; having silvery hair; hoary.
(archaic) Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favourable.
(obsolete) Regarded with especial favour; favourite; darling.
(politics) Pertaining to constitutional or anti-revolutionary political parties or movements.
(of tea) Made from immature leaves and shoots.
(typography) Not containing characters; see white space.
(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”).
Characterised by the presence of snow.
(of a set of armor) Alwhite, pertaining to white armor.
Examples
Antonyms: black, nonwhite, unwhite
Write in black ink on white paper.
white as the whitest lily on a stream.
[…] more white corporations cognizant of the mounting purchasing power of the Negro consumer, have Negro representatives in the field […].
Ms. Ringwald finds a few things about these films regrettable. One thing she found "significantly disturbing," she wrote, "was how white the films are."
white drinking fountain
white hospital
white wine
white grapes
white birch
Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! / They come! they come!"
Synonyms: fair, pale
Antonym: tanned
Antonym: black
The white pieces in this set are in fact made of light green glass.
a white monk
White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear.
"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.
No whiter page than Addison's remains. / He from the taste obscene reclaims our youth, / And sets the passions on the side of Truth,
“I’ll put you down at my club; and then, the governor will want to see you in the country.” / Jim had no idea of what was involved in being put down at a club, but he consented. “That ’s mighty white of you, old man, but I don’t know where I shall make down.”
He's a fine fellow, this Gabriel Stanton, a white man all through
‘We've only met twice and you've been more than white to me both times.’
Even decency has been regarded as a white or Christian attribute, as is evidenced by the expression "that's very white of you"
Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this.
On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life.
I am his white boy, and will not be gulled.
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.
Most often consisting of a budset pluck, a frost tea has the clarity and freshness of a white tea, with the richness and lingering finish of a finely crafted black tea.
Compare two Unicode symbols: ☞ = "WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX"; ☛ = "BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX"
a white Christmas
a white Easter
For instance, tyro jousters in fifteenth-century Iberia wore “white armor,” while experienced men wore surcoats over their harness , while fabric-covered breastplates are depicted in many examples of fifteenth-century northern European art.
Related words
related terms
whitebeam
whiten
whiteness
whitish
noun
white (countable and uncountable, plural whites)
The color/colour of snow or milk; the colour of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
A person of European descent with light-coloured skin.
Any butterfly of the subfamily Pierinae in the family Pieridae.
(countable and uncountable) White wine.
(countable and uncountable) White coffee
(countable) Any object or substance that is of the color white.
(archery) The central part of the butt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of a mark at which a missile is shot.
The enclosed part of a letter of the alphabet, especially when handwritten.
A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.
(board games, chess) The person playing with the white set of pieces.
Examples
Not only were the platforms tiled in white, the tunnels were painted white too - to prettify them, and make them less claustrophobic - and the Central proudly issued a postcard of its tunnel-whitening machine.
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.
The War on Drugs proved popular among key white voters, particularly whites who remained resentful of black progress, civil rights enforcement, and affirmative action.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:white person
A bottle of red, a bottle of white / It all depends upon your appetite / I'll meet you any time you want / In our Italian Restaurant.
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.
You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cocaine
I've got to hit the streets; I've got to move this white.
Ten grand a week we were clearing: base, white, meth, weed, anything. I can get you anything to get you high.
We was flyin' up O with white, we was buildin' lines, now it's clothing lines
Venice white
Nearly two-thirds of the Idaho crop has been great northerns, one-sixth small reds, and the remainder small flat whites and pintos and seed for snap beans and baby limas .
'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.
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.
[…] the a. b. d. g. o. p. q. &c. […] must be made with equal whites.
She copied the whole alphabet like that, as though only the inside whites of the letters registered on her mind.
Synonym: prime
3.—Wing-Quills or Remiges; Whites and Feminas.—The wing-quills are the largest feathers in the wing, and are arranged in a single row. They include the “Whites” in the cock, and the “Feminas” in the hen, as well as the “Byocks” or “Fancies” in the cock.
The usual kinds of ostrich feathers known to the trade come into the Tripoli market. These are whites, blacks, feminas, byocks, spadonas, boos, drabs and floss.
Whites, primes, pound, $120 to $300 […] The whites and blacks come from the male birds, the feminas and drabs from the female, the spadones are the first clipping taken from the young birds and the tails from each.
This parcel included 286 lbs. of feathers known as whites, and 211 lbs. of feathers known as feminas. The whites are described as lot 12, and the feminas as lot 13.
In this position, white has an opportunity to make a good move.
verb
white (third-person singular simple present whites, present participle whiting, simple past and past participle whited)
(transitive) To make white; to whiten; to bleach.
Examples
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.
so as no fuller on earth can white them
In a very few hours I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre.