Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Somewhat white.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Somewhat white; white in a moderate degree; albescent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Somewhat white; approaching white; white in a moderate degree.
  • adjective (Bot.) Covered with an opaque white powder.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Somewhat white, pale or almost white.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of something having a color tending toward white
  • adjective resembling milk in color not clear

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

white +‎ -ish

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Examples

  • I was too exhausted to pursue for further elaboration and spent the afternoon lying around with an iv, but I'm still, a year later, I'm totally perplexed by that illness. can food poisoning really result in whitish-grey paint poop?

    Science Question from a Toddler: Why is poop brown? Boing Boing 2009

  • The best myrrhe is known by little peeces which are not round; and when they grow together, they yeeld a certain whitish liquour which issueth and resolveth from them, and if a man breake them into morsels, it hath white veines resembling men's nails, and in tast is somewhat bitter.

    Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers 1891

  • When we come to reported falls of gelatinous substances, I'd like it to be noticed how often they are described as whitish or grayish.

    The Book of the Damned Charles Fort

  • The name of this tree in Hebrew is founded on the fact that it is the first to blossom; though not strictly white, its blossoms may be called whitish: the whitish blossoms, solitary while all is bare around, just yield the image required.

    Select Masterpieces of Biblical Literature Richard Green Moulton 1886

  • In some places the sulphur had formed crystals among other substances, such as whitish cinders made of an infinity of little feldspar crystals.

    The Mysterious Island 2005

  • In some places the sulphur had formed crystals among other substances, such as whitish cinders made of an infinity of little feldspar crystals.

    The Mysterious Island 2005

  • And it is kind of whitish and the trees are next to the blue sky.

    Here and Now Story Book Two- to seven-year-olds Lucy Sprague Mitchell 1922

  • Albert, vowed not to change her linen till Ostend was taken; this siege, unluckily for her comfort, lasted three years; and the supposed colour of the archduchess's linen gave rise to a fashionable colour, hence called _l'Isabeau_, or the Isabella; a kind of whitish-yellow-dingy.

    Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) Isaac Disraeli 1807

  • Mr. Deane had an agenda to support his side in a fraud trial so he created an "old black woman" persona and whipped up racial intolerance of the "whitish" old lady Madge Knox who is in the way of Mr. Deane's ambitions.

    Barbados Free Press 2009

  • While the downtown commercial area has been thoroughly cleaned up, in the hotel zone, native blue lupin flowers are still all but obscured by big whitish drifts left by the volcano.

    Ash From Chilean Volcano Craters Argentine Towns Matt Moffett 2011

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  • Citation on algal.

    June 30, 2008