whiteface
Americannoun
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a Hereford.
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Theater.
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a performer, as a clown, who appears in clown white.
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the white facial makeup used by such a performer.
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Etymology
Origin of whiteface
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Further, she criticized Chicago police for their alleged failure to investigate an online video showing one of the brothers “in whiteface doing a joke monologue with white makeup on,”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 18, 2022
Because, truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween.
From Slate ● Oct. 25, 2018
His making the pencil “disappear” is a stomach-turning exercise in wickedness and his whiteface makeup, always apparently disintegrating with sweat makes him look especially malign.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 8, 2018
He forgoes kabuki-style whiteface makeup, used in the original and many subsequent productions, but his performers maintain a sternness of expression and stiffness of body that subtly evoke the style.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2017
"Fifteen, sixteen—prod 'em up, you Arizona—seventeen, eighteen—jab that whiteface along—nineteen—hustle 'em in."
From Gunsight Pass How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West by William MacLeod Raine
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
