Dictionary

lily-white en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From Middle English liliwhite, lilye-white, lilye-whyt, equivalent to lily + white.

Meanings

1. A shade of the color white.
2. Pure, unblemished, immaculate.
   • Four for the Gospel makers, / Three, three, the rivals, / Two, two, the lily-white boys, Clothed all in green, O (Can we date this quote?), “Green Grow the Rushes, O”:
   • Not a pimple nor freckle marred her lily-white skin
3. Innocent, having a reputation beyond reproach.
4. (derogatory, slang, sometimes) Of the Caucasian race; white.
   • The film was shot on location in Notting Hill, but observers noticed how its streets were suspiciously free of black people, and instead “wholly populated with mindless, twittering, wittering, lily-white rich”, as writer China Miéville put it. 2023 March 7, Steve Rose, quoting China Miéville, “The romcom effect: will a new movie gentrify Peckham as Richard Curtis gentrified Notting Hill?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms

Translations (4)

fi liljanvalkoinen (a shade of the color white) · hu liliomfehér (a shade of the color white) · bg белоснежен (a shade of the color white) · de blütenweiß (pure, unblemished, immaculate)