white up

white up verb: to become or make (something) white.

Verb

white up (third-person singular simple present whites up, present participle whiting up, simple past and past participle whited up)

(intransitive, literally, transitive) To become or make (something) white.
(intransitive, transitive) To put on or wear whiteface.
- The final scene is a ritual penitence: as he leaves the park, he comes upon a student rag group, all whited up as clowns.1971, Roy Huss -, Focus on Blow-up, page 41
- ...performance reception was hardly a possibility in 1940s America, which is why the producers had to white up Lee.2011, Marvin Edward McAllister, Whiting Up, →ISBN

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.2012, George Yancy, Look, A White!: Philosophical Essays on Whiteness, →ISBN, page 111:
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.2012, David Walliams, Camp David, →ISBN, page lxxxviii:

third-person singular present	whites up
present participle	whiting up
past participle	whited up
past	whited up

What does white up mean?: White up means to become or make (something) white.
How do you use white up in a sentence?: 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.
What part of speech is white up?: White up is a verb.
What is the past tense of white up?: The past tense of white up is whited up.

Adapted from Wiktionary: white up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “white up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/white_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.