rewhitenv.
/ˌriːˈwʌɪtn/, U.S. /riˈ(h)waɪtn/ transitive. To whiten or make white again (in various senses); (also) to whitewash again.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > white or whiteness > whitening > make white [verb (transitive)]
whiteOE
emblanch1393
blank1484
whiten1552
frost1596
albify1599
frostbite?1605
hoar1605
dealbate1623
impearl1640
marble1658
bewhite1678
whiten1699
rewhiten1725
bewhiten1810
ermine1825
powder1890
1725 R. Russel tr. P. Quesnel New Test. with Moral Refl. IV. 207 This appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ is very desireable to Christians, if they have kept the robe of their baptism without spot, or have re-whitened [Fr. reblanchie] it in the water of repentance.
1790 J. Williams Shrove Tuesday in Cabinet (1794) 27 Sooner may ye re-whiten the chaste Snow..Than wipe the odium from a nymph beguil'd.
1854 tr. Marq. de Custine Russia 158 These men..seem to support themselves like insects against the edifices which they rewhiten.
1874 S. Hampden Lowencester iii. 40 To-morrow the ceiling will have dried sufficiently to be re-whitened.
1906 Young Woman's Jrnl. Nov. 502/2 All the houses and public buildings are of white stone or stucco, and are re-whitened..after the rainy season.
1957 Jrnl. Rom. Stud. 47 61 From a certain date the Pontifices before rewhitening the tabula began to note on a codex such information from the record of the preceding year as they thought should be preserved.
1998 G. Hollingshead Healer ii. 152 The air would no sooner clear than another truck roar past, rewhitening everything.
2008 J. Stevenson Brass Bed viii. 69 Maybe they want you to get your teeth re-whitened.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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