Meaning
Extremely and unnaturally pale, especially in the face, from fear, shock or illness. The comparison is to a laundered bed sheet - historically one of the whitest objects in everyday life - so the idiom describes a face drained of all colour: his face went white as a sheet when he saw the figure in the doorway. Almost always describes a face or complexion, usually in the pattern went or turned white as a sheet. Strongly associated with sudden fright, bad news or faintness. Do not confuse with three sheets to the wind, already catalogued here, in which the sheet is a sailing rope. Regional use: Current in British and American English and across the English-speaking world.
Origin
The sheet is the bed sheet. Ammer's American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms says the simile, dating from about 1600, survives despite the fact that bedsheets now come in all colors, and her Dictionary of Cliches takes the comparison back to Shakespeare's time, citing Iachimo over the sleeping Imogen in Cymbeline: 'How bravely thou becomest thy bed, fresh lily, / And whiter than the sheets!' - verified verbatim in the MIT text of a play first recorded in performance in April 1611. The dictionaries disagree on the exact wording's first attestation: Etymonline's sheet entry states white as a sheet is from 1751, later than Ammer's about 1600, and the Shakespeare line is whiter than the sheets, a cousin rather than the idiom itself. No consulted reference supports the occasional claim that the sheet is a burial shroud; the record points to bed linen.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- as white as a sheet
- went white as a sheet
- white as a ghost
Usage Examples
- She went white as a sheet when she opened the letter, and her hands were still shaking as she read it a second time.
- You look white as a sheet - sit down before you faint.
- The defendant stood white as a sheet as the verdict was read, gripping the rail of the dock.