Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (UK Und.) a counterfeit shilling.

1818

W. Perry London Guide 3: A ‘jobber’ [...] who ‘hung about’ the Queen’s Head, corner of St John’s Street [...] was always furnished with good smooth whites; which [...] was flash for bad shillings.

(b) (Aus.) a shilling.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 July 12/2: A man got fined […] for saying ‘Quack, quack!’ to another man. The other man, disapproving of this quack-quacking (which is comparatively unmeaning), ‘pulled’ the quacker, and he was mulct in the sum of 10 ‘white.’ [Ibid.] 15 Aug. 9/1: Twas in the old times, mind you, this – / The date you’d vainly seek – / When all that leading ladies ‘copp’d’ / Was sixty ‘white’ a week.
1905		Sporting Times 27 May 1/5: Once outside, it seemed to the pug a sin and a shame to squander two reds in Piccadilly on that which could be obtained down Gravel Lane for two whites — with a kosher smoke thrown in!

(a) gin.

1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry III v: It’s contraband article here – white is Max, and red is Cognac.
1833		‘The Slap-Up Cracksman’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 42: Here’s the cove with oil and white.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 129: Vhite [sic], gin.
1928		Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 13 Nov. in AS III:3 254: White – Gin.
1931		‘Und. “Lingo” Brought Up-to-Date’ L.A. Times 8 Nov. K16: WHITE: Gin; alcohol.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		(con. 1920s–30s) Goldin et al. DAUL 236/2: White. (Prohibition-era term used between retailers and customers) Gin.
[1952		(con. 1926) G. Fowler Schnozzola 100: Social unequals, the Piping Rock boys and the White Rock boys, got up to participate in the entertainment, and the ladies and the flossies became sisters under the gin].

(b) (US) any form of alcohol.

1900		Regiment 27 Jan. 288/1: Many of the terms used [in the British Army] are derived from India [...] Beer is variously known as ‘soup,’ ‘medicine,’ ‘pongelo,’ &c [...] beer and stout are distinguished by the terms ‘black’ and ‘white’.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 194: White.– Alcohol.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(c) (Aus.) methylated spirits.

1957

J.M. Hosking Aus. First and Last 69: The Chinese have their poppy; in Brazil there’s mescal too [...] We consult the Lady in white when nothing else will do [...] (Ever take metho on?). [Ibid.] 98: Do not touch the ‘white’, which lightens up the darkest night. / Metho can kill you on your feet.

(a) morphine, heroin.

1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xi: It is my personal opinion that she sniffs the white. She either does that or jabs, though it don’t show on her arm.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 87: white [...] Current amongst morphine habitues. Morphine. Example: ‘How many times a day are you shooting the white?’.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 28: Each Santa contains enough of the white to junk up half of the good old U.S.A.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 145: ‘I got some brown or a little bit of the white’.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 147: What’s waiting for us is Mexican brown, different from the white we’ve been shooting.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 112: Said he got some white comin in. I’m talkin about keys.

(b) (orig. UK Und.) cocaine.

1931		‘English Und. Sl.’ in Variety 8 Apr. n.p.: White — Cocaine.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 339: white, white girl: Cocaine.
1994		J. Wambaugh Finnegan’s Week 176: Through your nasal canal has passed more white than they see at Pillsbury Mills.
c.2003		D. Vrij ‘Tying Off’ on Inter-zone.org 🌐 When Dalton explained that Carlos wasn’t answering his phone, and that he wanted two blacks and a white, he was told, 12th and Jackson 20 minutes [...] Suffice it to say that about an hour later, Carlos rolled up dropped two grams of chiva, a gram of coke, and the new cell phone number.
2008		G. Pelecanos Way Home (2009) 214: She could have found a gun or a kilo of something white.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 61: If they’re droppin yer phone, they can set up the system so it recognizes keywords [...] coke, or white, or oats.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 290: The older O’Malleys were all mad alcoholics while the younger ones were lost to the brown and the white.
2015		86 ‘Mostman’ 🎵 I got run a white for the kiddies, that means i got pepper and salt.
2021		Central Cee ‘Pinging’ 🎵 We invest in white and turn on lines.

(c) a variety of amphetamine.

1967		J. Horton ‘Time and cool people’ in Trans-action 4 7/1: Pills are ‘reds’ and ‘whites’—barbiturates and benzedrine or dexedrine.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1993		L. Rodríguez Always Running (1996) 54: Pills they called colies or blancas (colies was short for coloradas, which meant ‘reds’ or downers; blancas stood for ‘whites’, uppers).
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 22: White — Heroin; amphetamine.

(d) crack cocaine; also attrib.

1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 18: Jake has been sniffing until it’s time to pick and pack the white chips.
1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 26: The ‘res’ or ‘white,’ is a good hit.
2003		Dizzee Rascal in Vice Mag. at Hyperdub.com 🌐 Crack’s bad. I’ve seen heroin fuck up lives: it’s the devil’s drug. To be honest I don’t know which one’s worse. Some people buy both, two brown, one white.
2008		Camden New Journal (London) 13 Mar. 2: Undercover police described how they bought wraps of ‘white and brown.’.
2016		Jeezy ‘All There’ 🎵 My youngins slanging white like it's still the 80’s.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 116: She had to start buying the white off Little Man.

(e) (N.Z. prison) a 2.5mg tablet of valium.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 202/2: white . 1 a 2.5mg Valium pill.

(f) (N.Z. prison) a tablet of Halcion.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 202/2: white . 2 a halcyon pill. [containing a weaker dose than a blue or a purple].