Meaning of white up | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To become or make (something) white.
   intransitive, literally, transitive
2. To put on or wear whiteface.
   intransitive, transitive

Examples

“The final scene is a ritual penitence: as he leaves the park⟳, he comes upon a student rag group, all whited up as clowns.”

“...performance reception was hardly a possibility in 1940s America, which is why the producers had to white up Lee.”

“White Chicks deploys a "reverse" minstrel show⟳ technique. Instead of whites "blacking up" to ridicule the oppressed Other, black men (Shawn and Marlon Wayans) "white up" to reveal⟳ and critique various instantiations of whiteness.”

“Nick Hedges was a disciple of the avant-garde dancer and choreographer Lindsay Kemp, whose style was for all the performers to white up their face⟳ like⟳ clowns and move⟳ very slowly.”

“In Ghana and Cape Town, Jamaica and Trinidad, local performers blacked up (and whited up and redded up) and created a global form⟳ with politics more slippery than anything T. D. Rice ever imagined.”

CEFR level