Whitechapel

1. An urban area in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in east London, Greater London, England, traditionally a poor working-class neighbourhood. (OS grid ref TQ3481)

   The first man I spoke to was Whitechapel to the backbone, plainly to be spotted as such as if it had been tattooed on his forehead. Making myself at home with him, I desired to know what brought him so far from the "big smoke," and on board a whaler of all places in the world.

   1898, Frank Thomas Bullen, The Cruise of the Cachalot

2. A hamlet in Goosnargh parish, Preston district, Lancashire, England (OS grid ref SD5541).

plural Whitechapels

1. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of Whitechapel cart.

   [S]he saw also a light stylish-looking cart which she would have called a Whitechapel had she been properly instructed in such matters[.]

   1864, Anthony Trollope, chapter 22, in Can You Forgive Her, London: Chapman and Hall