white hope


noun
  1. a person who is expected to accomplish much in a given field: the white hope of the American theater.

  2. Sports. (formerly) a white man who had a good chance of winning the heavyweight boxing championship from a Black man.

Origin of white hope

1
First recorded in 1905–10

Words Nearby white hope

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use white hope in a sentence

  • Because he is perceived as the next white hope of the NBA, even though the odds of that are mixed at best.

  • He had always been The Great white hope in a very small pond.

    Josh Brolin's Strange Year | Tom Tapp | November 14, 2008 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • The "white hope" was grinning and confident, and so he returned to the center of the ring for the second round.

    The Mucker | Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • The following morning the sporting sheets hailed "Sailor" Byrne as the greatest "white hope" of them all.

    The Mucker | Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • First among them came a bugler, the officers, then next a trooper, leading the white hope—the precious Red Rover.

    The Preacher of Cedar Mountain | Ernest Thompson Seton

British Dictionary definitions for white hope

white hope

noun
  1. informal a person who is expected to bring honour or glory to his group, team, etc

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012