lily-white
Beyond any reproach
Lily-white means pure white, like the flower.
The phrase extends to moral purity or innocence: a lily-white reputation.
In American usage, lily-white often describes places or institutions that exclude or lack Black people, whether by design or effect: a lily-white suburb, the lily-white country club.
The term carries critical undertones, suggesting the whiteness is deliberate or suspect.
Lacking color intensity
- pallidUnhealthily lacking color
- milkyWhitish and cloudy
- snowyBlanketed in white flakes
- alabasterTranslucent carving stone
ivory · porcelain · creamy · fair · blanched · bleached · chalky · ghostly
Unmixed, without impurities
- innocentFree from moral wrong
- blamelessFree of wrongdoing
- virtuousMorally excellent, principled
- irreproachableImpossible to criticize
unblemished · spotless · untarnished · squeaky-clean · above reproach · faultless · impeccable · unimpeachable
Forcibly kept separate
- exclusionaryTending to bar others
- homogeneousAlike in composition throughout
- CaucasianPerson of European ancestry
- Anglo-SaxonPre-Conquest British Germanic peoples
monocultural · unintegrated · discriminatory · redlining · sundown · restricted · exclusive · apartheid
pale
Lacking color intensity
alabaster · ivory · porcelain · creamy · fair · blanched · bleached · chalky · ghostly · ashen
pure
Unmixed, without impurities
irreproachable · unblemished · spotless · untarnished · squeaky-clean · above reproach · faultless · impeccable · unimpeachable · righteous
segregated
Forcibly kept separate
- exclusionaryTending to bar others
- homogeneousAlike in composition throughout
- CaucasianPerson of European ancestry
Anglo-Saxon · monocultural · unintegrated · discriminatory · redlining · sundown · restricted · exclusive · apartheid · Jim Crow
- puritypure, purity, pristine, spotless, spotlessness
lily-whiteguilty
Responsible for wrongdoing
corrupt · tainted · culpable · blameworthy · dirty
lily-whiteintegrated
Combined into a whole
diverse · multiracial · multicultural · mixed · desegregated