whitewing

[ hwahyt-wing, wahyt- ]

noun

1. a person who wears a white uniform, especially a public street cleaner.

Word History and Origins

Origin of whitewing¹

First recorded in 1850–55; white + wing

Example Sentences

For those in search of solitude, consider an informal getaway to Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley, where the welcoming Inn at the Whitewing Farm offers 10 well-appointed guest rooms — mostly decorated in an equestrian theme — scattered among three buildings on an 18th century former dairy farm.

From Washington Times

Whitewing Farm features a pond, pool and tennis court, complemented by the natural splendors of the grounds themselves, where guests can encounter well-known local groundhogs named Meatball and Pork Chop.

From Washington Times

When he got the hook after two months and three days as a political whitewing, Newbold Morris began acting for all the world like a tiger being dragged out of a meatshop.

From Time Magazine Archive

Borrowing from one of his political idols, the late Fiorello La Guardia, he would don a whitewing's uniform and sweep a street or peer owlishly from a Toledo newspaper in Indian headdress.

From Time Magazine Archive

They include a Wisconsin farmer, a textile worker in Lawrence, Mass., an Indian storekeeper in New Mexico, the proprietor of a curio store in Seattle, a model in Provincetown, an out-of-luck research scientist running a sound mixer in Hollywood, a Polish iron miner in the Mesabi, a whitewing on Manhattan's West End Avenue, cane cutters in Louisiana, cotton farmers in Mississippi, a salmon fisherman in Oregon, a steel-worker in Birmingham.

From Time Magazine Archive