white as a sheet/ghost

Extremely and unnaturally pale, as owing to fear or illness. His face went as white as a ghost when he saw the burglar in his house. Do you feel all right? Your face is white as a ghost! Our father, his face white as a ghost, put the phone down and told us he'd lost his job.

Extremely and unnaturally pale, as owing to fear or illness. His face went as white as a sheet when he saw the burglar in his house. Do you feel all right? Your face is white as a sheet! Our father, his face white as a sheet, put the phone down and told us he'd lost his job.

[of someone] extremely pale, as if frightened. (*Also: as ~.) Marilyn turned as white as a sheet when the policeman told her that her son had been in a car wreck. Did something scare you? You're white as a sheet! Jane made up the bed with her best linen sheets, which are always as white as snow. We have a new kitten whose fur is white as the driven snow.

Very pale in the face, as in She was white as a sheet after that near encounter. This simile, dating from about 1600, survives despite the fact that bedsheets now come in all colors.

If someone looks as white as a sheet or as white as a ghost, they look very pale because they are frightened, shocked or ill. When I saw him his face was as white as a sheet and he was crying. She was as white as a ghost and trembling all over.

Pale in the face. This simile dates from Shakespeare’s time; he wrote, “And whiter than the sheets!” in Cymbeline (2.2). The term was repeated by Henry Fielding, Frederick Marryat, Artemus Ward, and Thomas Hardy, among many others, and remains current.