English

Adjective

whitewall ‎(not comparable)

1. (of a tyre/tire) Having white sidewalls.
   • 1987, “The Case of the Wool's Worth”, in The Jewish Law Review: The Mishnah on damages:

     Jake had just installed a radar detector and four new whitewall tires.

   • 2007, George McNicholl, How to Rebuild Corvette Rolling Chassis 1963-1982:

     The UniRoyal Tiger Pay Touring whitewall tire is not a performance tire, but it is totally acceptable for street use.

   • 2015, Neal Murphy, East Texas Serendipity: Discovering Stories, History, and Tales from an East Texan’s Perspective:

     I was shocked the other day when I Walmart that I could not find a whitewall tire for sale.

2. (US, military) Describing a hair cut with a closely cropped back and sides and the hair on the top of the head left longer.
   • 2007, Alexander Theroux, Laura Warholic: Or, The Sexual Intellectual:

     A weird elongated creature with a whitewall haircut who had the big head as well as hands and fat thighs of the acromegalic, he was an uninhibited cross-dresser suffering from Gender Identity Disorder who constantly appeared in frocks.

   • 2011, Mike Stewart, A Clean Kill:

     A blond kid with a whitewall haircut and long, thin sideburns came over to stand beside the kid with the wimpy Roman do.

   • 2016, Lee Child, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: A Jack Reacher Novel:

     With a whitewall crew cut, high and tight.

Noun

whitewall ‎(plural whitewalls)

1. A whitewall tyre / tire.
   • 1947 June 20, Tide, page 25:

     Sales points you just have to snap on the whitewalls; they are easy to clean, can't scuff on curbs […]

   • 2008, Joey Green, Joey Green's Fix-It Magic: More Than 1,971 Quick-and-Easy Household Solutions Using Brand-Name Products:

     To clean whitewalls on tires, spray Easy-Off Oven Clearn on the whitewalls, wait two minutes, and then rince off with a high pressure hose.

   • 2009, William Kloefkorn, Breathing in the Fullness of Time:

     They owned two of the largest houses in town; and they drove the latest Chevrolets available, 1941 models, both cars still sporting whitewall tires, which meant that the man who said he hadn't seen a whitewall since Hector was a pup was perhaps stretching the truth.

2. (Britain, dialect, Northamptonshire, rare) The spotted flycatcher.
   • 1885, Charles Swainson, Provincial Names and Folk Lore of British Birds, volume 32, Spotted flycatcher:

     White wall (Northants).

   • 1903, The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:

     The beam-bird, Muscicapa grisola; the spotted flycatcher. Also whitewall, white-bird.

   • 1905, Alexander Robert Forbes, Gaelic Names of Beasts (Mammalia), Birds, Fishes, Insects, Reptiles, Etc:

     Wall bird, wall-plat, white base, whitewall.

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