white-out

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Related to white-out: Wite-Out

white-out

Drug slang A street term for isobutyl nitrite Substance abuse A generic term for commercial products used to correct typed or written errors on paper documents by painting over them with an opaque white, rapid-drying liquid. See 'Gateway' drugs, Proposition 65, TCE. Cf Glue-sniffing Wildness medicine An arctic condition characterized by loss of object visualization caused by bright sunlight reflecting off snow, resulting in snow blindness. See Snow blindness.

References in periodicals archive ?

Amateur explorer Alan Lock, 31, battled howling winds, snow white-outs, temperatures as low as minus 35C (minus 31F), and a diet consisting of dehydrated food packs and chunks of butter to complete the nearly 600-mile trek from the coast of Antarctica to the Pole on January 3 after 39 days.

Explorer Alan is in Pole position; Worldnews

My decision to go came after years of being the outcast of endless discussions he had with fellow ski addicts about moguls and white-outs, piste runs, village heights and snow reports before they went on their annual jaunt.

Find your ski legs; Hannah Stephenson takes a beginner's course in skiing at La Plagne in the Savoie area of the French Alps, attempts to keep up with her husband and discovers it's not such an ordeal after all I hadn't been on skis since my schooldays, when lessons were regimented, you were constantly cold and side-stepping up a nursery slope was the only option to warm up

Throughout his solo expedition, Richard faced the brutal Antarctic elements of white-outs, windchill and snow drifts called "sastrugi" and had to pull all his supplies in a small toboggan, which weighed about 68.2kg (10st 7).

Frazzled Richard's delight at reaching pole position

"There were periods where the weather was just appalling - when the wind and white-outs were very hard to deal with.

IN SCOTT'S FOOTSTEPS

"Occasional white-outs caused by our lunar system but on the whole, nice and warm," Tate forecast - white-outs being sudden avalanches of Tippex.

Shelley Vision; Wanting some action? Don't watch this space

"We had some white-outs where we were walking through a storm and the light was really flat and you couldn't tell what was the sky and what was the snow.

`You spend 15 hours a day staring at white or the back of a sleigh'

Sir Ranulf describes the conditions well: "Blizzards and white-outs are common.

SCOT OF THE ARCTIC; Dave Mill will fight the elements to walk to the top of the world

The pair reached their goal pulling sledges across the ice-cap after battling against ice pressure ridges, blizzards and white-outs.

Marines on top of the world; Pair eke out porridge and chocolate supply

But treacherous conditions, including frequent white-outs, have added time to the trip.