WHISTLING SHOP. Rooms in the King's Bench and Fleet prison where drams are privately sold.
WHIT. [i. e. Whittington's.] Newgate. Cant.—Five rum-padders are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and are piked into the deuseaville; five highwaymen broke out of Newgate in the night, and are gone into the country.
WHITE RIBBIN. Gin.
WHITE FEATHER. He has a white feather; he is a coward; an allusion to a game cock, where having a white feather is a proof he is not of the true game breed.
WHITE-LIVERED. Cowardly, malicious.
WHITE LIE. A harmless lie, one not told with a malicious
intent, a lie told to reconcile people at variance.
WHITE SERJEANT. A man fetched from the tavern or ale-house
by his wife, is said to be arrested by the white serjeant.
WHITE SWELLING. A woman big with child is said to have
a white swelling.
WHITE TAPE. Geneva.
WHITE WOOL. Geneva.