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
It’s not the dodgy whiteface makeup that threatens to blow their cover, however.
From The Guardian ● May 28, 2019
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
One is using whiteface as camouflage to escape racial violence, as some runaway slaves did.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2018
“It is a necktie with a picture like whiteface pony spots on a green frog swimming in the moonshine.”
From Rootabaga Stories by Maud Fuller Petersham
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.
