Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WHIST, n.

A game at cards so called because it requires silence or close attention. It is not in America pronounced whisk.

WHIS'TLE, n. [Sax. hwistle; L. fistula.]

1. A small wind instrument. – Bacon.
2. The sound made by a small wind instrument.
3. Sound made by pressing the breath through a small orifice of the lips.
4. The mouth; the organ of whistling. [Vulgar.]
5. A small pipe, used by a boatswain to summon the sailors to their duty; the boatswain's call. – Mar. Dict.
6. The shrill sound of winds passing among trees or through crevices, &c.
7. A call, such as sportsmen use to their dogs.

WHIS'TLE, v.i. [hwis'l; Sax. hwistlan; Sw. hvissla; Dan. hvidsler; L. fistula, a whistle; allied to whisper.]

1. To utter a kind of musical sound, by pressing the breath through a small orifice formed by contracting the lips. While the plowman near at hand, / Whistles o'er the furrow'd land. – Milton.
2. To make a sound with a small wind instrument.
3. To sound shrill, or like a pipe. The wild winds whistle, and the billows roar. – Pope.

WHIS'TLE, v.t.

1. To form, utter or modulate by whistling; as, to whistle a tune or air.
2. To call by a whistle; as, he whistled back his dog.

WHIS'TLED, pp.

Sounded with a pipe; uttered in a whistle.

WHIS'TLE-FISH, n.

A local name of a species of Gadus, with only two fins on the back; the Mustela fluviatilis. – Cyc.

WHIS'TLER, n.

One who whistles.

WHIS'TLING, ppr.

Uttering a musical sound through a small orifice of the lips; sounding with a pipe; making a shrill sound, as wind.

WHIS'TLING-LY, adv.

In a whistling manner.

WHIS'TLY, adv.

Silently.

WHIT, n. [Sax. wiht, a creature, also a thing, something, any thing. This is probably from the root of L. vivo, victum.]

A point; a jot; the smallest part or particle imaginable. It is used without a preposition. He is not a whit the wiser for experience. It does not me a whit displease. – Cowley. The regular construction would be by a whit, or in a whit. In these phrases, a whit may be interpreted by in the least, in the smallest degree.

WHITE, a. [Sax. hwit; Sw. hvit; Dan. hvid; D. wit; G. weiss.]

1. Being of the color of pure snow; snowy; not dark; as, white paper; a white skin.
2. Pale; destitute of color in the cheeks, or of the tinge of blood color; as, white with fear.
3. Having the color of purity; pure; clean; free from spot; as, white robed innocence.
4. Gray; as, while hair; a venerable man, white with age.
5. Pure; unblemished. No whiter page than Addison's remains. – Pope.
6. In a scriptural sense, purified from sin; sanctified. Ps. li.

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.

WHITE, v.t.

To make white; to whiten; to whitewash; as, whited sepulchers. Mark ix. Matth. xxiii.

WHITE'-BAIT, n. [white and bait.]

A very small delicate fish, of the genus Clupea.

WHITE'-BEAM, a.

The white-leaf tree, a species of Cratægus. – Lee.

WHITE-BEAR, n. [white and bear.]

The bear that inhabits the polar regions.

WHITE'-BRANT, n. [white and brant.]

A species of the duck kind, the Anas hyperborea. – Cyc.

WHITE'-BUG, n. [white and bug.]

An insect of the bug kind, which injures vines and some other species of fruit. – Cyc.

WHITE-CAM'PI-ON, n. [white and campion.]

A pernicious perennial weed, growing in corn land, pastures and hedges. – Cyc.

WHITE-CAT'ER-PIL-LAR, n.

An insect of a small size, called sometimes the borer, that injures the gooseberry bush. – Cyc.

WHITE-CEN'TAU-RY, n.

An annual weed in woods and other places. It is said to form the basis of the famous Portland powder for the gout. – Cyc.

WHITE-CLO'VER, n.

A small species of perennial clover, bearing white flowers. It furnishes excellent food for cattle and horses, as well as for the honey bee.

WHITE'-CROP, n.

White crops, in agriculture, are such as lose their green color or become white in ripening, as wheat, rye, barley and oats.

WHIT'ED, pp.

Made white; whitened.