off-white, n. and a.
[off- 5.]
A. n. A colour very close to white, usu. with grey or yellow tinge. B. adj. Almost white. Also fig., not standard; not socially acceptable; off-white collar: of a worker or occupation: not manual but not quite ‘white collar’.
| 1927 Daily Mirror 10 Dec. 16/1 Jumper suits in white, yellow, or what the Paris dressmakers call ‘off whites’ will see you through. 1931 Daily Express 18 Mar. 5/3 Fashionable colours are all off-white shades such as palest blues, greys, pinks, and greyish-greens. 1937 F. Stark Baghdad Sketches 187 A voluminous nightdress very much ‘off white’. 1951 H. Nicolson Diary 29 Aug. (1968) 208, I go to the B.B.C. to listen to recordings of King George's broadcasts. His voice is so like the present King's{ddd}it is what the B.B.C. would call ‘off-white’, meaning slightly cockney. 1954 M. Procter Hell is City iii. ix. 120 The interrogation room..had white-tiled walls and an off-white ceiling. 1962 Guardian 13 Apr. 1/7 Off-white⁓collar workers..are showing an unpatriotic reluctance to subsidise richer men's meals. 1962 A. G. Frank in Monthly Rev. (N.Y.) Nov. 384 There is movement into white or off-white collar jobs. 1962 M. Allingham China Governess (1963) iii. 51, I can be as ‘off-white’ as I like. I've no code to live up to. 1965 ― Mind Readers ix. 94 ‘You're telling me!’ The voice could produce an off-white accent. 1969 Y. Carter Mr. Campion's Farthing ii. 9 A very slight off-white accent... A suggestion of the lower orders. 1971 Nature 15 Jan. 175/2 It yielded about 200 mg of pure wildfire toxin as a fluffy, off-white powder. |