White-choker, subs. phr. (common).—1. A white tie: hence (2) a parson.
White-crow, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A
rarity; hence an
apparent contradiction in terms
which is none the less a fact.
[Albino crows are occasionally
met with.]
White-eye, subs. phr. (American).—Maize
whiskey.
White-feather. See Feather.
Whitefriars. See Alsatia.
White-horse, subs. phr. (common).—A
white-crested dancing
wave.
1849. Kingsley, Life, i. 168. The bay is now curling and writhing in white horses under a smoking south-wester.
d.1888. Matthew Arnold [Hotten]. Now the wild white horses play, Champ and chafe and toss in the spray. Children, dear, let us away, This way, this way.
To be white-horsed in, verb. phr. (tailors').—To obtain a berth through influence.
White-house, subs. phr (American
colloquial).—The official
residence of the President of
the United States, Washington:
from its colour. Its official
designation is Executive
Mansion (Century).
White-livered, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Cowardly,
mean. [An
old notion was that cowards had
bloodless livers.]
1548. Latimer, Sermons and Remains, s.v.
1597. Shakspeare, Richard III., iv. 4. White-liver'd runagate, what doth he there? Ibid. (1598), Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. How many cowards . . . inward searched Have livers white as milk?
1600. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, iv. 1. When they come in swaggering company, and will pocket up anything, may they not properly be said to be white-livered?
1625. Fletcher, Elder Brother, iv. 3. As I live, they stay not here, white-livered wretches.
White-lot, subs. phr. (thieves').—A
silver watch and chain: or
(old) white-stuff (or wedge);
cf. Red. White clock (or
white-'un) = a silver watch;
white jenny = a foreign made
silver watch (Hotten). White-money
= silver; the white and
the red = silver and gold.
Smooth-white = a shilling: see
Rhino.
1369. Chaucer, Troilus, iii. 1384. They shulle forgon the whyte and ek the rede.
1628. Middleton, Widow, iv. 2. A white thimble that I found.
1901. Walker, In the Blood, 138. That night he started a new career, and 'went through' three drunken men lying out in the Silent Places to the relieving tune of four pounds sterling, obtained in the form of silver money and a . . . white lot.
White Man's Hansom Woman,
subs. phr. (West Indian).—A
'brown' or 'yellow' mistress: a
'black' smock-servant = white
man's whore: an echo of the
'colour' sentiment: cf. a negro
'as black as one's hat' calling
another 'a damned black nigger.'
White-Moor, subs. phr. (old).—A
Genoese.
1642. Howell, Forraine Travell, vii. It is proverbially said, there are in Genoa mountaines without wood, sea without fish, women without shame, and men without conscience, which makes them to be termed the white Moores.
Whiteness, subs. (old).—1.
Chastity: also white (or cold)
sheets; (2) = nakedness.
