Definition of "white"

white as the whitest lily on a stream.

c. 1878, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Holidays

[…] more white corporations cognizant of the mounting purchasing power of the Negro consumer, have Negro representatives in the field […].

1949, Wendell P. Alston, “The Green Book”, in The Negro Motorist Green Book, New York: Victor H. Green, published 1949, page 3

Ms. Ringwald finds a few things about these films regrettable. One thing she found "significantly disturbing," she wrote, "was how white the films are."

2004 May 9, Michael Joseph Gross, “When the Losers Ruled in Teenage Movies”, in New York Times‎

Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! / They come! they come!"

1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], (please specify the stanza number)

White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear.

1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Second Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […]

No whiter page than Addison's remains. / He from the taste obscene reclaims our youth, / And sets the passions on the side of Truth,

1737, Alexander Pope, First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 194

“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.”

1901, Hamlin Garland, Her Mountain Lover, page 51

He's a fine fellow, this Gabriel Stanton, a white man all through

1916, Julia Frankau, Twilight

‘We've only met twice and you've been more than white to me both times.’

1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 12

Even decency has been regarded as a white or Christian attribute, as is evidenced by the expression "that's very white of you"

1976, United Church of Christ, A.D., number 1, page 34

Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head / So old and white as this.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]

On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as one of the white days of his life.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […]

I am his white boy, and will not be gulled.

c. 1626, John Ford, Tis Pity She's a Whore

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.

1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 163

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.

2012, Mary Lou Heiss, Robert J. Heiss, The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook

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 many examples of fifteenth-century northern European art.

2015 August 31, Albrecht Classen, Handbook of Medieval Culture, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

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.

2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, page 117

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.

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton

The War on Drugs proved popular among key white voters, particularly whites who remained resentful of black progress, civil rights enforcement, and affirmative action.

2012, Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, page 54

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.

1977, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, in Billy Joel (music), The Stranger

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.

2014, Maximillian Potter, Shadows in the Vineyard

'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white.

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]

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.

1594, Hugh Plat, chapter 38, in The Jewell House of Art and Nature‎, London, page 42

[…] the a. b. d. g. o. p. q. &c. […] must be made with equal whites.

1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid‎, London: T. Passinger, page 18

She copied the whole alphabet like that, as though only the inside whites of the letters registered on her mind.

1931, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in Police at the Funeral‎, Penguin, published 1939, page 157

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.

1909, Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope, page 514

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.

1909 August 12, “Ostrich Feathers of Tripoli”, in Neenah Daily Times, volume 53, number 8,451, Neenah, Wis., Menasha, Wis., column 5

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.

1910 October 30, The Arizona Republican, volume XXI, number 161, Phoenix, Ariz., page 9

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.

1923, South African Law Reports. Cape Provincial Division: Decisions of the Supreme Court of South Africa (Cape of Good Hope Provincial Decision)., page 532

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.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Matthew 23:27

so as no fuller on earth can white them

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Mark 9:3

In a very few hours I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I, page 199