white-out

Noun

whiteout (countable and uncountable, plural whiteouts)

1. A heavy snowstorm; a blizzard.
2. Any weather condition in which visibility and contrast are severely reduced by snow or sand causing the horizon and physical features of the terrain to disappear.
   • A whiteout can best be described as a paradoxical combination of being partially blind, but also being able to see illusions of things. It is like floundering in a sea of cotton; everything looks blurred and white.1979, Finn Ronne, Antarctica, My Destiny, Hastings House, →ISBN, page 136
3. Correction fluid (from the brand name Wite-Out).
4. (slang) A sporting event where all in attendance are urged to wear white apparel.
5. The simulated erasure of a file, etc. on a read-only volume.
6. The suppression of a story by the media, analogously to deleting information with correction fluid.
   • Despite the media whiteout, we believe our weapon flashing had communicated the important political message that the nuclear mentality and the masculine mentality are intimately connected.1986, Atlantis - Volume 12, page 174

See all 7 meanings of whiteout