/waɪt/, /ʍaɪt/
Origin* As an English surname, from Middle English White, as a nickname for someone with white hair or pale complexion; in some cases from a personal name of the same meaning. See the modern adjective white.
* Also as an English surname, from Old English *wiht (“bend”), found only in placenames, a derivative of the verb wican (“to yield, bend”); compare Wight.
* As a Scottish Gaelic and Irish surname, used as a translation of several Gaelic names containing the element bán and geal, including Mac Giolla bháin (McElwain, Kilbane), Ó Gealagáin (Galligan), Bán (Bane), and Ó Banáin (Bannon).
* Also as a Scottish and Irish surname, an Anglicization of Irish de Faoite, itself from Anglo-Norman le White, le Whyte, from the same source as the English surname.
- Bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
“Write in black ink on white paper.”
“white as the whitest lily on a stream.”
“While some of the more exotic varieties are becoming more popular with nationwide growers, such as the pale pinkish white pineberry, local farms will frequently plant a few different varieties to best”
- capitalized, sometimesOf or relating to Europeans or those of European descent, regardless if their skin has cool or warm undertones.
- capitalized, sometimesOf or relating to Caucasians (people with white complexion and European ancestry).
“[…]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."”
“If you're from Africa, why are you white?”
- capitalized, sometimesBy U.S. Census Bureau definition, of or relating to people hailing from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
- historicalDesignated for use by Caucasians.
“white drinking fountain”
“white hospital”
- Relatively light or pale in colour.
“white wine”
“white grapes”
“white birch”
- Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
“Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! / They come! they come!"”
- Lacking coloration (tan) from ultraviolet light; not tanned.
- Affected by leucism.
- Containing cream, milk, or creamer.
- The standard denomination of the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the white set, no matter what the actual colour.
“The white pieces in this set are in fact made of light green glass.”
“Consequently, in the initial position the white pieces and pawns are placed on the first and second ranks; the black pieces and pawns on the eighth and seventh ranks.”
- Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in white habits; Cistercian.
- Grey, as from old age; having silvery hair; hoary.
“Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this.”
- archaicCharacterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favourable.
“On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life.”
- obsoleteRegarded with especial favour; favourite; darling.
“I am his white boy, and will not be gulled.”
- Pertaining to constitutional or anti-revolutionary political parties or movements.
“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.”
- Made from immature leaves and shoots.
“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.”
- Not containing characters; see white space.
- Said of a symbol or character outline, not solid, not filled with color. Compare black (“said of a character or symbol filled with color”).
“Compare two Unicode symbols: ☞ = "WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX"; ☛ = "BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX"”
- Characterised by the presence of snow.
“a white Christmas”
“a white Easter”
- Alwhite, pertaining to white armor.
“For instance, tyro jousters in fifteenth-century Iberia wore “white armor,” while experienced men wore surcoats over their harness (Fallows 2010, 80), while fabric-covered breastplates are depicted in”
- Canada, UK, US, alt-of, not-comparableAlternative letter-case form of white (“of or relating to white complexion or Europeans”).
“Unfortunately, many White people have been raised to believe that their race is intrinsically more prejudice than others.”
- countable, uncountableThe color of snow or milk; the color of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
“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”
- countable, uncountableA person of European descent with light-colored skin.
“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”
“The War on Drugs proved popular among key white voters, particularly whites who remained resentful of black progress, civil rights enforcement, and affirmative action.”
- countable, uncountableAny butterfly of the subfamily Pierinae in the family Pieridae.
“Several other beautiful butterflies rewarded my search in this place [...] The most abundant butterflies were the whites and yellows (Pieridae), several of which I had already found at Lombock and at ”
- countable, uncountableWhite wine.
“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.”
- countable, uncountableWhite coffee
- abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, uncountableEllipsis of white bread
- countable, uncountableThe albumen of bird eggs (egg white).
- countable, uncountableThe sclera, white of the eye.
“You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening.”
- countable, uncountableThe cue ball in cue games.
- UK, US, countable, slang, uncountableCocaine.
“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”
- countable, uncountableThe snow- or ice-covered "green" in snow golf.
- countable, uncountableA white pigment.
- countable, uncountableA white bean.
“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 (table 21).”
- countable, uncountableThe central part of the butt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of a mark at which a missile is shot.
“'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.”
- countable, uncountableThe enclosed part of a letter of the alphabet, especially when handwritten.
“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.”
“[…] 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.”
- countable, uncountableA feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.
“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 h”
“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 tail”
- countable, uncountableThe person playing with the white set of pieces.
“In this position, white has an opportunity to make a good move.”
“1...Qd3 2 Ne1 Nd2! wins since 3 Nxd3 Rxf1 mate while 3 Qxc7+ Kg6 only delays the end. The best White can do is 3 Qc3+ Qxc3 4 Rxc3 Rxe1 when Black also wins the Bf1 and will be two pieces up.”
- alt-ofAlternative letter-case form of white (“European”).
“The Whites on the mission were a special kind of white person, special in the way that my grandmother had explained to me, for they were holy.”
“To add insult to injury, not only do Whites shame each other but every other race joins in because they are also educated to believe Whites have somehow screwed them over and are still screwing them o”
- historicalAn anticommunist who fought against the Reds during the Russian Civil War; the term is mostly associated with monarchist forces.
- The player moving the white pieces.
“The eight files (from left to right for White and from right to left for Black) are indicated by the small letters, a, b, c, d, e, f, g and h, respectively.”
- transitiveTo make white; to whiten; to bleach.
“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.”
- countable, uncountableA common British and Irish surname transferred from the nickname.
“When Dana White barreled up to the microphone, at Donald Trump’s request, to say his piece on election night, it represented confirmation of the UFC CEO’s status as one of the key members of the presi”
- countable, uncountableA minor city in Bartow County, Georgia; named for its first postmaster.
- countable, uncountableA city in South Dakota; named for its first European settler.
- countable, uncountableAn unincorporated community in Washington; named for a Washington state judge.
- countable, uncountableA ghost town in Missouri; named for a local mining official.
Formswhiter(comparative) · more white(comparative) · whitest(superlative) · most white(superlative) · whight(alternative, obsolete) · whyte(alternative, obsolete) · whyght(alternative, obsolete) · White(alternative) · whites(plural) · whites(present, singular, third-person) · whiting(participle, present) · whited(participle, past) · whited(past) · Whites(plural) · Whyte(alternative) · Wight(alternative)