English Explanatory Dictionary

bleach

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
  2. A variety of bleach.
verb
  1. To treat with bleach, especially so as to whiten (fabric, paper, etc.) or lighten (hair).
  2. To be whitened or lightened (by the sun, for example).
  3. To lose color due to stress-induced expulsion of symbiotic unicellular algae.
  4. To make meaningless; to divest of meaning; to make empty.
noun
  1. An act of bleaching; exposure to the sun.
adj
  1. Pale; bleak.
noun
  1. A disease of the skin characterized by hypopigmentation and itching, believed in the 17th century to be a form of leprosy.

Pronunciation

blēch /bliːt͡ʃ/ [blit͡ʃ] En-us-bleach.ogg [bliːt͡ʃ]

Word forms

bleach bleaches bleaching bleached bleacher more bleach bleachest most bleach

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 whitewash

Derived words

biobleach bleach bypass bleachery bleachfield bleach job bleachless bleachlike bleachorexia bleach weed bleachworks bleachy blix brain bleach eye bleach mind bleach nonbleach overbleach photobleach postbleach prebleach skip bleach bleachability bleachable bleacher rebleach
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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