bleach

About 0.77 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. noun A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
2. noun A variety of bleach.
3. verb To treat with bleach, especially so as to whiten (fabric, paper, etc.) or lighten (hair).
4. verb To be whitened or lightened (by the sun, for example).
5. verb 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.

6. verb To make meaningless; to divest of meaning; to make empty.

   semantically bleached words that have become illocutionary particles

7. noun An act of bleaching; exposure to the sun.
8. adjective Pale; bleak.

Similar words

decolor decolorize bleaching agent whitener blanching agent bleach out discolorize etiolate breach disinfectant

Often followed by

and the in solution to is or out on

Word family

bleachable bleached bleaches bleaching