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white shark

(Encyclopedia)white shark, large, ferocious shark, Carcharodon carcharias. Also known as the great white shark and maneater, this shark can attack swimmers and boats without provocation, though it does not typicall...

white snakeroot

(Encyclopedia)white snakeroot, North American woods perennial (Eupatorium urticifolium) of the family Asteraceae (aster family), having a flat-topped cluster of small white flowers. It is of the same genus as the b...

white vitriol

(Encyclopedia)white vitriol: see zinc sulfate. ...

white whale

(Encyclopedia)white whale: see beluga.

White, Bouck

(Encyclopedia)White, Bouck bouk [key], 1874–1951, American clergyman and author, b. Middleburg, N.Y. He was ordained as a Congregational minister in 1904 but was dismissed from his post at Trinity House, Brooklyn...

White, Charles

(Encyclopedia)White, Charles (Charles Wilbert White, Jr.), 1918–79, American figurative painter, printmaker, and teacher, b. Chicago, studied School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A left-leaning activist whose ...

White, Edmund

(Encyclopedia)White, Edmund (Edmund Valentine White 3d), 1940–, American writer, b. Cincinnati, B.A. Univ. of Michigan, 1962. White is one of the best known—and probably the finest stylist—of the openly gay w...

White, Elijah

(Encyclopedia)White, Elijah, 1806–79, American missionary in the Oregon country. A physician, he left Boston in 1836 to join the Methodist mission established by Jason Lee. After friction with his associates, he ...

White, Gilbert

(Encyclopedia)White, Gilbert, 1720–93, English naturalist. He served as curate at Selborne and nearby parishes from 1751. He recorded his detailed observations of nature in letters to other naturalists, and on th...

White, Henry

(Encyclopedia)White, Henry, 1850–1927, American diplomat, b. Baltimore. He studied abroad and traveled widely. White—often called the first career diplomat in the United States—entered the foreign service as ...