bleach
A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such…A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
Recorded US: Doughaque, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
» Don't mix ammonia and bleach together.
Vermische Ammoniak nicht mit Bleichmittel! — Yorwba
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 senses(uncountable)A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
Bleiche, Bleichmittel
бели́льная и́звестьbelílʹnaja ízvestʹ, бели́льный раство́рbelílʹnyj rastvór, отбе́ливательotbélivatelʹ
відбі́лювачvidbíljuvač
(countable)A variety of bleach.
An act of bleaching; exposure to the sun.
the act of whitening something by bleaching it (exposing it to sunlight or using a chemical bleaching agent)
(obsolete)A disease of the skin characterized by hypopigmentation and itching, believed in the 17th century to be a form of leprosy.
Examples
74 sentencesDon't mix ammonia and bleach together.
deVermische Ammoniak nicht mit Bleichmittel! — Yorwba
Tom has bleached his hair again.
I don't usually use bleach when I wash clothes.
It's better not to use bleach if you don't need it.
It smells like bleach.
Translations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English blechen, from Old English blǣċan (“to bleach, whiten”), from Proto-WesFrom 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”).
From Middle English bleche, from Old English blǣċu, blǣċo (“paleness, pallor”), from Proto-Germanic *blaikį̄ (“paleness”). See Etymology 1 above.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: bleachesSynonyms
3 synonyms- an agent that makes things white or colorless:bleaching agentblanching agentwhitener
Word family
21 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.