▪ I. whiten, v.
(ˈhwaɪt(ə)n)
Also 5 qwhittyn, 5, 9 dial. whitten, 6 whyten, whyghten.
[f. white a. + -en5. Cf. ON. hv{iacu}tna to become white.]
1. trans. To make or render white; to impart a white colour or appearance to. a. gen.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter I. 9 [li. 7] Þou..salt wasche me,..And ouer snawe sal I whitened be. 1552 Huloet, Whyghten, albo,..candefacio. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles iii. xv, Whiten'd with foam a thousand streams Leap from the mountain's crown. 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. xxxiv, Take care, while you are young, that you can think in those days, ‘I never whitened a hair of her dear head.’ 1873 Black Pr. Thule i, The sea whitened by the rushing of the wind. |
b. To cover, coat, or overspread with something white; spec. to whitewash; to coat (metal) with tin, to tin.
Also said (chiefly poet. or rhet.) of a white substance or a number of white objects covering or spread over a surface.
| 1435 Misyn Fire of Love ii. ix. 95 Of qwhome sum þer fowlnes to hyde or þer bewte þa study to increse with payntynge of begillynge avotre þer faces þa color & qwhittyn. 1664 in W. O. Blunt Ch. Chester-le-Street (1884) 96 For whitning the church four pound ten shillings. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 88 In this Countrey of Persia,..they whiten, or if you will, tinn, brass and copper otherwise than with us. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. i. I. 6 To put it [sc. a pin-head] on, is a peculiar business, to whiten the pins is another. 1874 J. Birch Country Archit. 44 Lath, plaster, float, set and twice whiten all ceilings through⁓out. 1891 Hardy Tess li, I shall get the house swept out and whitened to-morrow morning. |
| 1703 Pope Thebais 391 Where..human bones yet whiten all the ground. 1719 Young Busiris i. i, Sails unnumber'd whiten all the stream. 1823 Scott Quentin D. xxv, Meadows..whitened with the numerous tents of the Duke of Burgundy's army. 1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) I. xxi. 335 The mountains, whitened with snow, were swept by the bleak winds of winter. |
c. To make white by depriving of the natural colour; to blanch; to bleach; to make pale.
| 1693 Evelyn De La Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 148 To tie up..the tops of the Leaves of Long Lettuce..to make them Cabbage, or at least to whiten them. 1726–31 Waldron Descr. Isle of Man (1865) 15 A good air to whiten cloth. 1791 Cowper Iliad viii. 90 Fear whiten'd every cheek. 1791 Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing I. i. i. iii. 51 Oxygen is capable of whitening..the colouring matter. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 767 (Leather) The effects of the paste are to whiten the skins, to soften them, and to protect them from the hardening influence of the atmosphere. 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. vi. xii, I've got cloth as has never been whittened. |
d. fig. To free or clear from evil, guilt, or the like; also, to cause to seem right, good, pure, etc.; to give a specious appearance to.
| c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 123 He went & shrafe hym of all his synys... And onone as he come in, þis man..said; ‘A! welcom, frend! com ner, for þou hase wele whittend þe.’ [1667 Observ. Burning Lond. 10 And which are never true but by a supposition that if they doe not happen in our Countrey, they may happen in another, which is called to Whiten Black.] 1679 Burnet Hist. Ref. I. Pref. (c) 2 b, Such remarkable blemishes, that..no man..can go about the whitening them. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. i. 44 The bristl'd Baptist Boar, impure as He, (But whitn'd with the foam of sanctity). 1873 H. Spencer Study Sociol. ix. (1877) 220 By selecting the evidence any society may be relatively blackened, and any other society relatively whitened. |
2. intr. To become or turn white; to assume a white colour or aspect; vaguely, to appear white.
| a 1633 G. Herbert Jacula Prudentum 943 Thornes whiten yet doe nothing. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 451 They [sc. Cardons Spanish] whiten in about three Weeks and are fit to eat. 1720 Pope Iliad xxi. 382 A Foam whitens on the purple Waves. 1725 ― Odyss. ix. 160 The sea whitens with the rising gale. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 152 When heated, it hardens and whitens. 1831 James Phil. Augustus xvi, Let his corpse remain unburied, and his bones whiten in the wind! 1833 Tennyson Lady of Shalott i. ii, Willows whiten, aspens quiver,..By the island in the river. 1853 Longfellow tr. Dante, Purgat. xvi. 143 Behold the dawn,..Already whitening. 1914 ‘Ian Hay’ Knt. on Wheels xiv, His hair was whitening. |
b. To turn pale, esp. from fear or other emotion. (Cf. redden v. 2 b.)
| 1783 Justamond tr. Raynal's Hist. Indies V. 192 All the human species, in general, whitens in the snow, and is tanned in the sun. 1821 Shelley Ginevra 66 The cheek that whitens. 1880 R. Broughton Sec. Th. iii. iv, ‘I am very glad to hear it,’ he says almost inaudibly, and whitening. |
c. fig.: cf. 1 d.
| 1758 H. Walpole Catal. Roy. Authors (1759) I. 172 What character that he has censured, has whitened by examination. 1801 S. & Ht. Lee Cant. T. V. 90 It..bids us whiten by a comparison with the imperfections of others. |
Hence whitened (ˈhwaɪt(ə)nd), ppl. a.
| a 1711 Ken Hymns Evang. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 4 Patin and Chalice were of whiten'd Clay. 1860 Froude Hist. Eng. xxiv. V. 37 The sunlight stared in white and stainless upon the whitened aisles; the churches were new whitelimed. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. ii. (1889) 18 That peculiar whitened appearance left when water has passed over vegetation. 1881 ― Wood Magic II. iv. 99 In his rage and fear, with whitened face. |
▪ II. whiten
obs. or dial. f. whiting n. and vbl. n.