bleach
Meanings
Plural: bleaches
Noun
- the whiteness that results from removing the color from something
- "a complete bleach usually requires several applications"
- an agent that makes things white or colorless
- the act of whitening something by bleaching it (exposing it to sunlight or using a chemical bleaching agent)
- A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
- A variety of bleach.
- An act of bleaching; exposure to the sun.
- A disease of the skin characterized by hypopigmentation and itching, believed in the 17th century to be a form of leprosy.
Verb
- remove color from
- "The sun bleached the red shirt"
- make whiter or lighter
- "bleach the laundry"
- To treat with bleach, especially so as to whiten (fabric, paper, etc.) or lighten (hair).
- To be whitened or lightened (by the sun, for example).
- To lose color due to stress-induced expulsion of symbiotic unicellular algae.
- To make meaningless; to divest of meaning; to make empty.
Adj
- Pale; bleak.
Origin / 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).
Synonyms
blanch, blanching agent, bleach out, bleaching agent, decolor, decolorise, decolorize, decolour, decolourise, decolourize, discolorise, discolorize, discolourise, whitener
Scrabble Score: 13
bleach is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordbleach is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
bleach is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary