white lead

Noun

white lead (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Tin, golden marcasite.
   • It is not amiſs here to give the differences betwixt white Lead, or Tin, Biſmuth, Tin-glaſs, or aſh-coloured Lead, and this common Lead, which they call black Lead;1671, John Webster, Metallographia: Or, an history of metals., London, page 271
2. A basic lead carbonate, particularly (historical) as once widely used for white paint, whitening cosmetics, and early medicine.
   • The beginning of a new episode of work for Bradly was an agitated niggling over six-by-four squares of cardboard coated with size and white lead, prepared by himself to save an experimental waste of canvas.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 40
   • Such eminent and renowned scientists as Fourcroy, Berthollet and Vauquelin all enthusiastically supported zinc white, the defects of which "are so slight compared to the disadvantages of using white lead, that its adoption cannot be reasonably refused."2021, Judith Rainhorn, The Colour of Controversy..., p. 4

   Synonyms:

   lead white, flake white, silver white, slate white, ceruse, Venetian ceruse, Venetian white, white poison