bleach
/bliːtʃ
/verb [with object]
1Cause (a material such as cloth, paper, or hair) to become white or much lighter by a chemical process or by exposure to sunlight: a new formula to bleach and brighten clothing (as adjective bleached) permed and bleached hair...
- He had bleached his hair almost white and spiked it into a number of horns all over his head.
- Mickey had short bleached-blonde hair and a sandpapery growth of stubble on his chin.
- It is also possible to bleach paper through an oxidation process that uses no chlorine at all.
Synonyms
make/turn white, whiten, make/turn pale, make/turn pallid, blanch, lighten, fade, wash out, decolour, decolorize, peroxide, etiolate
go/grow/turn/become white, whiten, go/turn/grow/become pale, pale, go/grow/turn/become pallid, blanch, lose its colour, be washed out, lighten, fade, blench
1.1Deprive of vitality or substance: his contributions to the album are bleached of personality...
- A large colour photograph from his shack dweller series has been bleached of its content, the sitter a vague outline, a ghostly presence leached from the scene.
- I am now standing outside Iona Abbey (although the island is much smaller and flatter than I remember, seemingly bleached of some of its character and wild aspects).
- Those answers mean a lot, Mosley says, because it's troubling when biracial people seem to bleach away their blackness with European pride.
2Clean or sterilize (a drain, sink, etc.) with bleach.Baths foreman Frank Hardcastle had a four-day job of cleaning the tiles and bleaching the pool floor....
- This can be made clean by bleaching it, boiling it and filtering it.
- Between the two of us, we scrubbed and wiped and bleached that entire apartment clean over that night and the better part of the next day.
noun [mass noun]
A chemical (typically a solution of sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide) used to make materials whiter or for sterilizing drains, sinks, etc. how can I get all those stains out of my wash without bleach?...
- This technique means that wherever they make chlorine, they make sodium hydroxide, too, and generally they go on to make sodium hypochlorite bleach for you, too.
- For successful inactivation of both organism and toxin, both bleach and sodium hydroxide must be applied for a total of 40 minutes.
- Be familiar with and observe safety guidelines when working with hazardous chemicals such as sodium hydroxide and bleach.
Origin
Old English blǣcan (verb), blǣce (noun), from blǣc 'pale', of Germanic origin; related to bleak1.