Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WHITE, n.

1. One of the natural colors of bodies, but not strictly a color, for it is said to be a composition of all the colors; destitution of all stain or obscurity on the surface; whiteness. We say, bleached cloth is of a good white; attired in a robe of white.
2. A white spot or thing; the mark at which an arrow is, shot. – Dryden. White of the eye, that part of the ball of the eye surrounding the iris or colored part. It owes its whiteness to the tunica albuginea or adnata, a partial covering of the fore part of the eye, formed by the expansion of the tendons of the muscles which move the eye-ball. – Parr. White of an egg, the albumen, or pellucid viscous fluid, which surrounds the vitellus or yelk. – Parr. An analogous part, in the seeds of plants, is called the albumen or white. It is a farinaceous fleshy or horny substance, which makes up the chief bulk of some seeds, as in grasses, corn, palms and lilies, never rising out of the ground nor performing the office of leaves but destined solely to nourish the germinating embryo, till its roots can perform their office. It is the perispermum of Jussieu. – Gartner. Smith. Spanish white, a substance used in painting, prepared from chalk, by separating from the latter its siliceous impurities.