Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of lily-white To the naked eye, the sport’s lily-white facade is deeply pervasive. Essence, 17 Oct. 2024 The suburbs have long and deep histories of racial exclusion, creating the lily-white neighborhoods that benefited generations of white families. Becky Nicolaides / Made By History, TIME, 15 Aug. 2024 Riding was a lily-white sport there, too, but there wasn’t the same kind of ceiling on what was possible for a Black man. Ryan Lenora Brown, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 June 2024 Follow Thomas through the lily-white halls of his suburban school that contrasted sharply with his urban neighborhood, trying to reconcile his sexuality with the Christianity that raised him, the exhaustion of code-switching, covering the 2016 election and everything that came after. Lizz Schumer, Peoplemag, 30 May 2024 The main protagonist, Audrey (Ashley Park), a successful lawyer who was adopted from China by a White American couple, has been best friends with Lolo (Sherry Cola) since childhood, bonding over being two of the few Asians in their almost lily-white hometown. Olivia McCormack, Washington Post, 5 July 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lily-white
Adjective
  • Unless more Democrats start being realistic, many more innocent people will unfortunately continue to suffer.
    Christopher Tremoglie, The Washington Examiner, 5 Sep. 2025
  • Ben Lewis Doherty, playing a boy named Sam whose life is upended by Robbie, is the show’s greatest innocent, a softhearted moppet who warns deer to be careful when crossing the street.
    Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • No party in the war was blameless, but Hezbollah distinguished itself by outright rejecting norms of war and diplomacy.
    Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 2 Sep. 2025
  • But Newcastle are not blameless.
    Harry De Cosemo, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Each of them offers money and position but nothing much in the way of pleasure, excitement, intellectual stimulation, or the prospect of anything other than a life of loveless, socially irreproachable tedium possibly brightened by the occasional extramarital affair.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2025
  • Beneath their air of irreproachable authority, Jung and Freud — both brilliantly played, the first with subtlety, the other with theatrical relish — wrestle with petty grievances and insecurities, while the former stubbornly rationalizes his affair with onetime patient Spielrein.
    A.A. Dowd, Vulture, 28 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • And how many guiltless prisoners there are here!
    Alexei Navalny, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
  • Many fans found its generally joyous treatment of Miranda’s guiltless affair with Che, a nonbinary comedian, in the first season off-putting.
    Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post, 21 June 2023

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Cite this Entry

“Lily-white.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lily-white. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.

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