ˈmilk-white, a.
a. White as milk.
Usually employed in the sense of ‘pure white’; for a proposed use in botanical descriptions, see quot. 1839.
| ? c 1000 Prudent. Gloss. in Germania N.S. XI. 389/70 Of meolc hwyttre, lacteo. Ibid. 397/32 Meolchwitum, lacteis. c 1205 Lay. 15938 Þe oder [drake] is milc-whit. c 1325 Chron. Eng. 621 (Ritson) Thre hondred steden mylk-whyte. 1595 Alcilia (1879) 19 The snow, Whose milke-white mantell ouerspreeds the ground. 1639 T. de la Grey Compl. Horsem. 59 The horse which is milke-white. 1718 Prior Dove 78 Her blushing face the lovely maid Rais'd just above the milk-white sheet. 1808 Scott Marm. iv. vii, On milk-white palfrey forth he paced. 1839 Lindley Introd. Bot. 477 Milk-white..; dull white verging to blue. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 154 A broad, milk-white beach received the vast rollers. |
| absol. 1683 A. Snape Anat. Horse i. i. (1686) 2 The Horse will be of a milk-white or yellow-dun. |
† b. milk white way = Milky Way.
Obs.| 1555 Eden Decades 94 The tracte of heauen cauled Lactea via, that is the mylke whyte waye. 1594 Taming of a Shrew (1607) D 3 b, As faire as is the milke white way of Ioue. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iv. xix. (1636) 475 Having described unto you..as many stars as are named in the Globe, and also the milkewhite way [etc.]. |