Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. venereal disease, spec. a vaginal discharge, gonorrhoea [the colour of the discharge; 20C+ use is Aus.].

a.1680		‘Advice to a C-monger’ Harleian Mss. 7312.89: Citty C–ts are dangerous sport [...] Country C–ts have nasty whites.
a.1690		‘Looking Glass’ Harleian Mss. 6913.102: Tho’ her Highness much delights To laugh and talk about your Whites I never could perceive your Grace Made use of any for your face.
1737		J. Astruc Venereal Disease (trans. Barrowby) I 265: Gonorrhoea in Women, is frequently confounded with the Whites, . . . which indeed it very much resembles, when the inflammation is pretty much abated, and the Women frequently lead us into this error, either thro’ real or pretended ignorance of the cause of their disorder.
c.1830		‘A Sporting Surgeon’ Waterfordiana 20: When the mucous membrane of the vagina is irritated by other causes, or secretes abundantly, there will be a whitish or yellowish discharge, termed ‘whites,’ or leucorrhoea.
1882		Cremorne I 28: I’d have fancied she had the whites upon her but [...] her cunt [was] as tight as wax.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 133: Fleurs blanches = leucorrhoea; ‘the whites.’.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 40: Venereal disease makes no gender distinctions but only women exhibit a symptom known as ‘the whites.’.

2. silver coins; thus in counterfeiters’ jargon large whites, half-crowns, small whites, shillings.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: whites, counterfeit silver.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 194: In the language of smashers, ‘small whites’ are shillings, ‘large whites’ half-crowns, which are also ‘half-bull whites.’.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 35: Whites – counterfeit silver.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
1887		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 23 Oct. 4/1: Silver dollars are [...] ‘whites.’.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 204: The needy one implored his obdurate chum to shake out at least a deuce of whites.

3. (W.I.) a drink of white rum.

1979

T. Rhone Old Story Time I i: A tell you, give him a bottle of whites, an two twos him was slap bang in the mood.

4. (drugs) amphetamines.

1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 222: Bennies (’cartwheels’ or ‘whites’) are basic to the outlaw diet.
1972		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 109: Tim is back to his old regimen of reds and whites.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 240: They generally buy whites, the most popular current variety of which is called ‘crossroads.’.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 169: Some whites and weed, tha’s a nice high. Jus’ be feelin’ mellow.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 208: They’re picking up a bag of whites.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 91: Them guys push whites and RDs.

5. (N.Z. prison) an all-white uniform that signified a mentally unstable or ‘at-risk’ inmate.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 203/1: whites n pl. the special white uniform worn by a mentally unbalanced or ‘at­ risk’ inmate.