1604. Shakspeare, Winter's Tale, i. 2. The purity and whiteness of my sheets. Ibid. (1605), Cymbeline, i. 6. Should he make me live . . . betwixt cold sheets whiles he is vaulting variable ramps? Ibid., ii. 2. The chastity . . . whiter than the sheets! That I might touch!
1654. Chapman, Rev. for Honour. 'Twas a rape Upon my honour, more then on her whitenesse. Ibid. And now I would not but this devil prince Had done this act upon Caropia's whiteness.
White-poodle, subs. phr. (obsolete
tailors').—A rough woolly
cloth.
White-prop, subs. phr. (thieves').—A
diamond scarf-pin: also
sparkle- (or spark-) prop.
1879. Horsley, Auto, of Thief [Macmillan's Mag., xl. 506]. Pipe his spark prop.
1888. Sims, Plank Bed Ballad [Referee, 12 Feb., 3]. A spark prop a pal . . . and I Had touched.
Whiter, subs. (Harrow School).—A
white waistcoat: permissible
after three years at the school:
cf. -er.
White-satin, (-lace, -tape,
-wine, or -ribbon), subs. phr.
(common).—Gin: see Drinks
and Tape.
1820. Egan, Randall's Diary. Jack Randall then impatient rose, And said, 'Tom's speech were just as fine If he would call that first of goes By that genteeler name—white wine.'
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. The 'driz fencers,' or sellers of cheap lace, carried about their persons 'jigger stuffs,' or spirit made at an illicit still. They sold it, I've heard them say, to ladies that liked a drop on the sly. One old lady used to give three shillings for three yards of 'driz,' and it was well enough understood, without no words, that a pint of brandy was part of them three yards.
White-sergeant, subs. phr.
(common).—A 'breeches-wearing'
wife: the general (q.v.),
the grey-mare (q.v.).
White-trash, subs. phr. (negro).—A
poor white: Southern states:
also poor white folk.
1856. Olmsted, Texas [Bartlett]. In social relations, the Negroes are sensitive to the overbearing propensities of a proprietary who are accustomed to regard all neighbors out of their own class as white trash.
1856. Stowe, Dred, II. Of all the pizen critters that I knows on, these ere mean white trash is the pizenest. They ain't got no manners and no bringing up. Ibid., 1. 271. 'The fact is,' said Mr. Gordon, 'what with niggers, and overseers, and white trash, my chances of salvation are dreadfully limited.'
1866. Atlantic, xviii. 84. Tain't no use, honey; you don't 'pear to take no int'res' in yer own kith and kin, no more dan or'nary white trash.
Whitewash. 1. See White,
verb.
2. (old).—'A glass of sherry as a finish, after drinking port or claret' (Hotten).
Whitewashers, subs. (military).—The
second battalion Gloucestershire
Regiment, late the
61st Foot.
Whither-go-thee, subs. phr.
(B. E., c. 1696).—A wife.
Whiting. To let leap a
whiting, verb. phr. (old).—To
miss an opportunity.
Whiting-mop, subs. phr. (old).—1.
A young and pretty girl;
hence (2) an endearment: also
whiting.
d.1525. Skelton, Elinour Rumming. That can my husband saye Whan we kysse and playe In lust and in likynge He calleth me his whiting.
