1869. Stowe, Oldtown, 336. The Thanksgiving festival of that year is particularly impressed on my mind as a white day.
1884. Century Mag., xxxix. 523. Why, Miss, he's a friend worth havin', and don't you forget it. There ain't a whiter man than Laramie Jack.
1887. St. James's Gazette, 21 May. At present, when an Irishman is accused in Ireland of what is called a white-crime by his fellow-countrymen (such, for instance, as the murder of a caretaker or a landlord) the difficulty is not only with the jury but with the witnesses.
1898. Gould, Landed at Last, iv. There goes a 'white man' if ever there was one. . . . That beard [is] the only black thing about him.
1900. Lynch, High Stakes, xliii. She is the one white, beautiful, lovable creature in all the world—to me.
2. See White-boy.
3. See White-lot.
Verb (old).—To gloss over, to rehabilitate: also (modern) whitewash, which spec. = to clear of debt by process of the Bankruptcy Court. Hence whitewash, subs. = a veneer of respectability; with whitewasher and whitewashing as derivatives. Also to use one white = (1) to deal fairly and justly, and (2) to act on the square (q.v.).
c. 1616. Fletcher, Bloody Brothers, iv. 1. Whit'st over all his vices.
1773. Foote, Bankrupt [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 186. Among the verbs are whitewash a creditor].
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, vii. A white-washed Jacobite . . . had lately qualified himself to act as a justice, by taking the oaths to Government.
1844-8. Lowell, Tempora Mutantur. Whitewashed, he quits the politician's strife At ease in mind, with pockets filled for life.
1888. D. Teleg., 21 Mar. The impecunious man could get the Bankruptcy Court to whitewash him.
1885. Notes and Queries, 28 Nov., 439. Attempts to whitewash the character of Richard III. . . . have been frequent.
1885. Academy, 21 Nov., 342. I have not aimed altogether at a whitewashing of Bramwell Brontë.
1888. St. James's Gaz., 17 Mar. If the Sicilian Vespers . . . have not as yet taken their place in the record of virtue, it is probably because the whitewasher has been too busy upon other undertakings.
1903. D. Teleg., 22 May, 7. 3. I had not followed the case closely, and did not know that he was an undischarged bankrupt. Mr. White had whitewashed him.
1900. Lynch, High Stakes, xxix. I don't see why I should give away a fellow that's used me white.
To spit white, verb. phr. (old).—To expectorate from a dry but healthy mouth: also to spit white broth (or six-pences). Fr. cracker des pièces de dix sous.
1594. Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 1 [Nares]. That makes them spit white broath, as they do.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., i. 2. 237. If it be a hot day, and I brandish anything but a bottle, I would I might never spit white again.
1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, iii. 3. Had I been a pagan still, I should not have spit white for want of drink.
1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, iv. vi. He had thought it rather a dry discourse; and beginning to spit sixpences (as his saying was), he gave hints to Mr. Wildgoose to stop at the first public-house they should come to.
White-apron, subs. phr. (old).—A
whore: see Tart.
1599. Hall, Satires, iv. 1. Or midnight plays, or taverns of new wine, Hye ye, white aprons, to your landlords signe.
1733-7. Pope, Imit. of Horace. And some to hunt white-aprons in the park.
