bleach
noun
- chemical product used to remove color, whiten, or disinfect, often via oxidation
verb
- to whiten or blanch
- to lighten hair
- to be whitened or lightened
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /bliːt͡ʃ/ / [blit͡ʃ] / [bliːt͡ʃ]
adj
Etymology: From Middle English bleche (also bleke), from Old English blǣċ, blǣc, variants of blāc (“bright, shining, glittering”), from Proto-West Germanic *blaik, from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale, shining”). More at bleak.
- Pale; bleak.
noun
Etymology: From Middle English bleche, from Old English blǣċe (“irritation of the skin, leprosy; psoriasis”).
- A disease of the skin characterized by hypopigmentation and itching, believed in the 17th century to be a form of leprosy.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English blechen, from Old English blǣċan (“to bleach, whiten”), from Proto-West Germanic *blaikijan, from Proto-Germanic *blaikijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine”). Cognate with Dutch bleken (“to bleach”), German bleichen (“to bleach”), Danish blege, Swedish bleka (“to bleach”). Related to Old English blāc (“pale”) (English blake; compare also bleak).
- To treat with bleach, especially so as to whiten (fabric, paper, etc.) or lighten (hair).
“Candifacio, to make whyte, to bleache, to make to glowe lyke a burnyng cole.”
“The destruction of the colouring matters attached to the bodies to be bleached is effected either by the action of the air and light, of chlorine, or of sulphurous acid.”
- To be whitened or lightened (by the sun, for example).
“The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!”
“[…] when Mrs. Giddy-gaddy came to take out her clothes, deep green stains appeared on every thing, for she had forgotten the green silk lining of a certain cape, and its color had soaked nicely into the pink and blue gowns, the little chemises, and even the best ruffled petticoat. […] “Lay them on the grass to bleach,” said Daisy, with an air of experience.”
- To lose color due to stress-induced expulsion of symbiotic unicellular algae.
“Once coral bleaching begins, corals tend to continue to bleach even if the stressor is removed.”
- To make meaningless; to divest of meaning; to make empty.
“semantically bleached words that have become illocutionary particles”