The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

White \White\ (hw[imac]t), a. [Compar. Whiter
   (hw[imac]t"[~e]r); superl. Whitest.] [OE. whit, AS.
   hw[imac]t; akin to OFries. and OS. hw[imac]t, D. wit, G.
   weiss, OHG. w[imac]z, hw[imac]z, Icel. hv[imac]tr, Sw. hvit,
   Dan. hvid, Goth. hweits, Lith. szveisti, to make bright,
   Russ. sviet' light, Skr. [,c]v[=e]ta white, [,c]vit to be
   bright. [root]42. Cf. Wheat, Whitsunday.]
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   1. Reflecting to the eye all the rays of the spectrum
      combined; not tinted with any of the proper colors or
      their mixtures; having the color of pure snow; snowy; --
      the opposite of black or dark; as, white paper; a
      white skin. "Pearls white." --Chaucer.
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            White as the whitest lily on a stream. --Longfellow.
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   2. Destitute of color, as in the cheeks, or of the tinge of
      blood color; pale; pallid; as, white with fear.
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            Or whispering with white lips, "The foe!
            They come! they come!"                --Byron.
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   3. Having the color of purity; free from spot or blemish, or
      from guilt or pollution; innocent; pure.
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            White as thy fame, and as thy honor clear. --Dryden.
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            No whiter page than Addison's remains. --Pope.
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   4. Gray, as from age; having silvery hair; hoary.
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            Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head
            So old and white as this.             --Shak.
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   5. Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the
      like; fortunate; happy; favorable.
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            On the whole, however, the dominie reckoned this as
            one of the white days of his life.    --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
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   6. Regarded with especial favor; favorite; darling.
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            Come forth, my white spouse.          --Chaucer.
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            I am his white boy, and will not be gullet. --Ford.
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   Note: White is used in many self-explaining compounds, as
         white-backed, white-bearded, white-footed.
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   White alder. (Bot.) See Sweet pepper bush, under
      Pepper.

   White ant (Zool.), any one of numerous species of social
      pseudoneuropterous insects of the genus Termes. These
      insects are very abundant in tropical countries, and form
      large and complex communities consisting of numerous
      asexual workers of one or more kinds, of large-headed
      asexual individuals called soldiers, of one or more queens
      (or fertile females) often having the body enormously
      distended by the eggs, and, at certain seasons of numerous
      winged males, together with the larvae and pupae of each
      kind in various stages of development. Many of the species
      construct large and complicated nests, sometimes in the
      form of domelike structures rising several feet above the
      ground and connected with extensive subterranean galleries
      and chambers. In their social habits they closely resemble
      the true ants. They feed upon animal and vegetable
      substances of various kinds, including timber, and are
      often very destructive to buildings and furniture.

   White arsenic (Chem.), arsenious oxide, As2O3, a
      substance of a white color, and vitreous adamantine
      luster, having an astringent, sweetish taste. It is a
      deadly poison.

   White bass (Zool.), a fresh-water North American bass
      (Roccus chrysops) found in the Great Likes.

   White bear (Zool.), the polar bear. See under Polar.

   White blood cell. (Physiol.) See Leucocyte.

   White brand (Zool.), the snow goose.

   White brass, a white alloy of copper; white copper.

   White campion. (Bot.)
      (a) A kind of catchfly (Silene stellata) with white
          flowers.
      (b) A white-flowered Lychnis (Lychnis vespertina).

   White canon (R. C. Ch.), a Premonstratensian.

   White caps, the members of a secret organization in various
      of the United States, who attempt to drive away or reform
      obnoxious persons by lynch-law methods. They appear masked
      in white. Their actions resembled those of the Ku Klux
      Klan in some ways but they were not formally affiliated
      with the Klan, and their victims were often not black.

   White cedar (Bot.), an evergreen tree of North America
      (Thuja occidentalis), also the related Cupressus
      thyoides, or Chamaecyparis sphaeroidea, a slender
      evergreen conifer which grows in the so-called cedar
      swamps of the Northern and Atlantic States. Both are much
      valued for their durable timber. In California the name is
      given to the Libocedrus decurrens, the timber of which
      is also useful, though often subject to dry rot.
      --Goodale. The white cedar of Demerara, Guiana, etc., is a
      lofty tree (Icica altissima syn. Bursera altissima)
      whose fragrant wood is used for canoes and cabinetwork, as
      it is not attacked by insect.

   White cell. (Physiol.) See Leucocyte.

   White cell-blood (Med.), leucocythaemia.

   White clover (Bot.), a species of small perennial clover
      bearing white flowers. It furnishes excellent food for
      cattle and horses, as well as for the honeybee. See also
      under Clover.

   White copper, a whitish alloy of copper. See German
      silver, under German.

   White copperas (Min.), a native hydrous sulphate of iron;
      coquimbite.

   White coral (Zool.), an ornamental branched coral
      (Amphihelia oculata) native of the Mediterranean.

   White corpuscle. (Physiol.) See Leucocyte.

   White cricket (Zool.), the tree cricket.

   White crop, a crop of grain which loses its green color, or
      becomes white, in ripening, as wheat, rye, barley, and
      oats, as distinguished from a green crop, or a root crop.


   White currant (Bot.), a variety of the common red currant,
      having white berries.

   White daisy (Bot.), the oxeye daisy. See under Daisy.

   White damp, a kind of poisonous gas encountered in coal
      mines. --Raymond.

   White elephant (Zool.),
      (a) a whitish, or albino, variety of the Asiatic elephant.
      (b) see white elephant in the vocabulary.

   White elm (Bot.), a majestic tree of North America (Ulmus
      Americana), the timber of which is much used for hubs of
      wheels, and for other purposes.

   White ensign. See Saint George's ensign, under Saint.


   White feather, a mark or symbol of cowardice. See To show
      the white feather, under Feather, n.

   White fir (Bot.), a name given to several coniferous trees
      of the Pacific States, as Abies grandis, and Abies
      concolor.

   White flesher (Zool.), the ruffed grouse. See under
      Ruffed. [Canada]

   White frost. See Hoarfrost.

   White game (Zool.), the white ptarmigan.

   White garnet (Min.), leucite.

   White grass (Bot.), an American grass (Leersia Virginica)
      with greenish-white paleae.

   White grouse. (Zool.)
      (a) The white ptarmigan.
      (b) The prairie chicken. [Local, U. S.]

   White grub (Zool.), the larva of the June bug and other
      allied species. These grubs eat the roots of grasses and
      other plants, and often do much damage.

   White hake (Zool.), the squirrel hake. See under
      Squirrel.

   White hawk, or White kite (Zool.), the hen harrier.

   White heat, the temperature at which bodies become
      incandescent, and appear white from the bright light which
      they emit.

   White hellebore (Bot.), a plant of the genus Veratrum
      (Veratrum album) See Hellebore, 2.

   White herring, a fresh, or unsmoked, herring, as
      distinguished from a red, or cured, herring. [R.] --Shak.

   White hoolet (Zool.), the barn owl. [Prov. Eng.]

   White horses (Naut.), white-topped waves; whitecaps.

   The White House. See under House.

   White ibis (Zool.), an American ibis (Guara alba) having
      the plumage pure white, except the tips of the wings,
      which are black. It inhabits tropical America and the
      Southern United States. Called also Spanish curlew.

   White iron.
      (a) Thin sheets of iron coated with tin; tinned iron.
      (b) A hard, silvery-white cast iron containing a large
          proportion of combined carbon.

   White iron pyrites (Min.), marcasite.

   White land, a tough clayey soil, of a whitish hue when dry,
      but blackish after rain. [Eng.]

   White lark (Zool.), the snow bunting.

   White lead.
      (a) A carbonate of lead much used in painting, and for
          other purposes; ceruse.
      (b) (Min.) Native lead carbonate; cerusite.

   White leather, buff leather; leather tanned with alum and
      salt.

   White leg (Med.), milk leg. See under Milk.

   White lettuce (Bot.), rattlesnake root. See under
      Rattlesnake.

   White lie. See under Lie.

   White light.
      (a) (Physics) Light having the different colors in the
          same proportion as in the light coming directly from
          the sun, without having been decomposed, as by passing
          through a prism. See the Note under Color, n., 1.
      (b) A kind of firework which gives a brilliant white
          illumination for signals, etc.

   White lime, a solution or preparation of lime for
      whitewashing; whitewash.

   White line (Print.), a void space of the breadth of a line,
      on a printed page; a blank line.

   White meat.
      (a) Any light-colored flesh, especially of poultry.
      (b) Food made from milk or eggs, as butter, cheese, etc.
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                Driving their cattle continually with them, and
                feeding only upon their milk and white meats.
                                                  --Spenser.
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   White merganser (Zool.), the smew.

   White metal.
      (a) Any one of several white alloys, as pewter, britannia,
          etc.
      (b) (Metal.) A fine grade of copper sulphide obtained at a
          certain stage in copper smelting.

   White miller. (Zool.)
      (a) The common clothes moth.
      (b) A common American bombycid moth (Spilosoma
          Virginica) which is pure white with a few small black
          spots; -- called also ermine moth, and virgin
          moth. See Woolly bear, under Woolly.

   White money, silver money.

   White mouse (Zool.), the albino variety of the common
      mouse.

   White mullet (Zool.), a silvery mullet (Mugil curema)
      ranging from the coast of the United States to Brazil; --
      called also blue-back mullet, and liza.

   White nun (Zool.), the smew; -- so called from the white
      crest and the band of black feathers on the back of its
      head, which give the appearance of a hood.

   White oak. (Bot.) See under Oak.

   White owl. (Zool.)
      (a) The snowy owl.
      (b) The barn owl.

   White partridge (Zool.), the white ptarmigan.

   White perch. (Zool.)
      (a) A North American fresh-water bass (Morone Americana)
          valued as a food fish.
      (b) The croaker, or fresh-water drum.
      (c) Any California surf fish.

   White pine. (Bot.) See the Note under Pine.

   White poplar (Bot.), a European tree (Populus alba) often
      cultivated as a shade tree in America; abele.

   White poppy (Bot.), the opium-yielding poppy. See Poppy.


   White powder, a kind of gunpowder formerly believed to
      exist, and to have the power of exploding without noise.
      [Obs.]
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            A pistol charged with white powder.   --Beau. & Fl.
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   White precipitate. (Old Chem.) See under Precipitate.

   White rabbit. (Zool.)
      (a) The American northern hare in its winter pelage.
      (b) An albino rabbit.

   White rent,
      (a) (Eng. Law) Formerly, rent payable in silver; --
          opposed to black rent. See Blackmail, n., 3.
      (b) A rent, or duty, of eight pence, payable yearly by
          every tinner in Devon and Cornwall to the Duke of
          Cornwall, as lord of the soil. [Prov. Eng.]

   White rhinoceros. (Zool.)
      (a) The one-horned, or Indian, rhinoceros (Rhinoceros
          Indicus). See Rhinoceros.
      (b) The umhofo.

   White ribbon, the distinctive badge of certain
      organizations for the promotion of temperance or of moral
      purity; as, the White-ribbon Army.

   White rope (Naut.), untarred hemp rope.

   White rot. (Bot.)
      (a) Either of several plants, as marsh pennywort and
          butterwort, which were thought to produce the disease
          called rot in sheep.
      (b) A disease of grapes. See White rot, under Rot.

   White sage (Bot.), a white, woolly undershrub (Eurotia
      lanata) of Western North America; -- called also winter
      fat.

   White salmon (Zool.), the silver salmon.

   White salt, salt dried and calcined; decrepitated salt.

   White scale (Zool.), a scale insect (Aspidiotus Nerii)
      injurious to the orange tree. See Orange scale, under
      Orange.

   White shark (Zool.), a species of man-eating shark. See
      under Shark.

   White softening. (Med.) See Softening of the brain, under
      Softening.

   White spruce. (Bot.) See Spruce, n., 1.

   White squall (Naut.), a sudden gust of wind, or furious
      blow, which comes up without being marked in its approach
      otherwise than by whitecaps, or white, broken water, on
      the surface of the sea.

   White staff, the badge of the lord high treasurer of
      England. --Macaulay.

   White stork (Zool.), the common European stork.

   White sturgeon. (Zool.) See Shovelnose
      (d) .

   White sucker. (Zool.)
      (a) The common sucker.
      (b) The common red horse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum).

   White swelling (Med.), a chronic swelling of the knee,
      produced by a strumous inflammation of the synovial
      membranes of the kneejoint and of the cancellar texture of
      the end of the bone forming the kneejoint; -- applied also
      to a lingering chronic swelling of almost any kind.

   White tombac. See Tombac.

   White trout (Zool.), the white weakfish, or silver
      squeteague (Cynoscion nothus), of the Southern United
      States.

   White vitriol (Chem.), hydrous sulphate of zinc. See White
      vitriol, under Vitriol.

   White wagtail (Zool.), the common, or pied, wagtail.

   White wax, beeswax rendered white by bleaching.

   White whale (Zool.), the beluga.

   White widgeon (Zool.), the smew.

   White wine. any wine of a clear, transparent color,
      bordering on white, as Madeira, sherry, Lisbon, etc.; --
      distinguished from wines of a deep red color, as port and
      Burgundy. "White wine of Lepe." --Chaucer.

   White witch, a witch or wizard whose supernatural powers
      are supposed to be exercised for good and beneficent
      purposes. --Addison. --Cotton Mather.

   White wolf. (Zool.)
      (a) A light-colored wolf (Canis laniger) native of
          Thibet; -- called also chanco, golden wolf, and
          Thibetan wolf.
      (b) The albino variety of the gray wolf.

   White wren (Zool.), the willow warbler; -- so called from
      the color of the under parts.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

white elm
    n 1: large ornamental tree with graceful gradually spreading
         branches common in eastern North America [syn: American
         elm, white elm, water elm, rock elm, Ulmus
         americana]