Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) eggs [those of the hens that lay them].

1887		‘Dict. of Diningroom Sl.’ in Brooklyn Daily Eagle 3 July 13: ‘White wings, ends up,’ are poached eggs. [...] ‘White wings, sunny side up,’ are fried eggs.
1897		L.A. Times 9 Apr. 5: ‘White wings, sunny side up’--fried eggs.
1902		O. Wister Virginian 150: ‘I’ll have some fried aiggs,’ said the Virginian. ‘Cooked both sides.’ ‘White wings!’ sang the colonel through the hole. ‘Let ’em fly up and down.’.
1928		Bath Chron. 4 Aug. 25/6: A waitress contributed: ‘white wings and bacon,’ eggs and bacon.

2. (US) any wearer of a white uniform.

1898		K.C. Star 21 Dec. 4/1: Alderman Herman Gerhart would have the white wings paid every Saturday night [DA].
1956		‘James Updyke’ [W.R. Burnett] It’s Always Four O’Clock 169: [of nurses] White wings, male and female, kept going in and coming out of Royal’s room.

3. (US) a New York City street cleaner [their white uniform, adopted after the reform of the city’s street cleaning by Col. George F. Waring in 1895, and their ‘angelic’ occupation].

1902		N.Y. Times 23 Aug. 7: ‘WHITE WINGS’ IN SKIRTS; Exasperated Paterson Women Form Street-Cleaning Brigade.
1909		N.Y. Times 4 June 16: [headline] 4,500 ‘White Wings’ March in Review. Mayor and Commissioner Edwards Inspect the Army of Street Cleaners [...] Then came the White Wings. These men, who spend most of their days cleaning streets.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 138: He holds up anyone that’s handy, from a white wings dodgin’ trucks in the middle of Madison Square, to a Wall Street broker rushin’ from ’Change.
1917		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 1 Aug. [synd. col.] She had given the sweaters to two whitewings who were all dressed up in their duck suits manicuring a section of Fifth Avenue.
1934		G.T. Fleming-Roberts ‘Blue Heat’ Phantom Detective May 🌐 When you poleese geta steamed up about nothing, my boys, like what you call da white-wings, sweepa da street.
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 2 Oct. [synd. col.] The white wing pausing to thumb through a discarded issue of Vogue.
1950		Time 3 Apr. 44/2: Dressed as whitewings, Godfrey, Crooner Morton Downey and Hollywood Comic Jack Carson appeared on the street pushing street cleaners’ brooms [DA].