▪ I. bleach, n.1
(bliːtʃ)
Also in 4 bleche.
[Sense 1 is perh. the same as OE. blǽco paleness, f. blác, blǽc, shining, pale. Sense 3 is directly from the vb.: cf. ‘a wash.’]
† 1. Whiteness, paleness. Obs.
| c 1050 Cott. Cleop. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 465 Pallor, blæco. 1400 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 255 Brest & hert was bete to bleche. |
† 2. A disease of the skin. Cf. OE. blǽce leprosy.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 391 A certaine gum that is passing good for the bleach, scabs and scals in little children. |
3. An act of bleaching; as ‘a thorough bleach in the sun.’ A bleaching process; also, a bleached condition.
| 1887 Sci. Amer. 16 Apr. 249/3 What is known as ‘the three-quarter bleach’ with flax. 1920 Discovery Mar. 86/2 A perfect bleach is almost impossible to secure. |
4. A bleaching liquor or powder.
| 1898 Daily News 15 Dec. 6/5 A quantity of bleach escaped from a tank at one of the paper mills. 1910 Daily Chron. 23 Apr. 7/3 There are several good nail bleaches that are safe to use. 1970 Which? May 149/1 All the scouring powders contained some bleach. |
5. Comb. (See bleach v. 1) as bleach-croft, bleach-field, bleach-green, bleach-grounds, bleach-works, bleach-yard. Cf. bleaching.
| 1852 Tomlinson Encycl. I. 133/2 Across the *bleach croft. |
| 1753 Scots Mag. Sept. 468/2 Indicted for stealing..some stockings from a *bleachfield. 1806 Gaz. Scotl. 339/2 The excellence of its water for bleaching processes has induced many to establish extensive printfields and bleachfields on its banks. 1957 R. Watson-Watt Three Steps Victory v. 33 A polychromatic stream which served..as a carrier of bleachfield effluents. |
| 1724 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 114/1 The workmen employed at a neighbouring *bleach-green. |
| 1815 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 5) III. 678 Who has large *bleach-grounds at Glasgow. |
| 1818 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 296 Some oil of vitriol works near to my *bleach-works. |
| a 1788 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) III. 515 This place is..much enriched with *bleach yards. |
▪ II. † bleach, n.2 Obs.
Also [5 blek(e], 5–6 bleche, bleeche, bletche.
[A derivative of black, but the etymological formation is obscure. ME. bleche looks like the southern form of blek, bleke in same sense, prob. identical with Icel. blek, Sw. bläk, Da. blæk blacking, ink: see bleck. But it may go back to an OE. blęce or blæce: see black. Bleech, bleach are later spellings of bleche. But bletche implies a ME. blecche, OE. *blęcce, parallel to blatch, ME. blacche, OE. *blæcce, on the OTeut. types *blakjo- and *blakkjo-: see black.]
1. Any substance used for blacking; e.g. ink, soot, lamp-black, and esp. shoemakers' or curriers' black used for leather.
| [c 1440 Promp. Parv. 39 Bleke, atramentum. c 1483 Cath. Angl. 34 Blek.] a 1500 in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 566 Atramentum, anglice, bleche. 1530 Palsgr. 199/1 Bleche for souters, attrament. 1576 Baker Gesner's Jewell of Health 101 b, Shoemakers yncke or bleeche. 1580 Baret Alv. B 794 Courriors bleach..atramentum sutorium. 1611 Cotgr., Attrament, inke; or bleach for Shoomakers. Ibid., Suye, soot of a chimney; any bleach. |
† 2. Hence, in the old ‘Compaynys of beestys [etc.]’ the term for, A company of sutors. Obs.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans F vj b, A Bleche of sowteris, a Smere of Coryouris, a Clustre of Grapys. |
▪ III. † bleach, a. Obs.
Also 4–5 bleche.
[ME. bleche was prob. the continuation of OE. blǽc, variant form of blác shining, white, pale (usually explained as:—OTeut. *blaiki-z and *blaiko-z respectively).]
1. Pale = bleak a. 1.
| 1340 Ayenb. 53 Al huet þou art bleche and lhene. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 210 She is pale and bleche. |
2. = bleak a. 2.
| 1598 Florio, Piaggioso, medowie, large, bleach, fieldie. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. i. vi. §4 A bleach barren place. |
▪ IV. bleach, v.1
(bliːtʃ)
Forms: 1 blǽcan, 2–5 blechen, 6 bleche, bleache, 8 bleech, 6– bleach. See also the (northern) form bleak. pa. tense and pple. bleached (bliːtʃt): in ME. blaȝte, blaȝt, bleyȝt: cf. teach, taȝt, teiȝht, now taught.
[Com. Teut.: OE. blǽc(e)an wk. vb. = ON. bleikja, OHG. bleichên:—OTeut. *blaikjan to bleach, f. *blaiko-z, blaiki-z white: see prec. and blake a.]
1. a. trans. To whiten (linen, etc.) by washing and exposure to sunlight, or by chemical processes.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 57 Sume bereð clene cloð to watere to blechen. a 1225 Ancr. R. 324 Wule a weob beon, et one cherre, mid one watere wel ibleched. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 39 Blechen clothe [v.r. blekyn], candido. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 916 When..Maidens bleach their summer smockes. 1632 Massinger City Mad. iv. iv, Some chandlers daughters, Bleaching linen in Moorfields. 1727 Pope, etc. Art Sinking 108 Say that his linen was finely spun, and bleached on the happy plains. 1832 Babbage Econ. Manuf. vi. (ed. 3) 41 Bleaching linen in the open air. |
b. fig. To free from stain, purify, sanctify. rare.
| 1868 Heavysege Saul 428 She may still live, be bleached with pious sighs, And showers of tears. |
2. a. gen. To blanch or make white, to deprive of colour, esp. by exposure.
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 58 [The adder] his slougth vncasing, hym self now youthfulye bleacheth. 1662 Dryden Wild Gall. v. i. (1725) 156 ‘To have me Face bleach'd like a Tiffany with thy Brimstone.’ 1791 Burns Lament Earl Glencairne ii, His locks were bleachèd white with time. 1810 Scott Lady of L. iii. v, The bones of men..bleached by drifting wind and rain. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1872) I. v. ix. 179 His old head which seventy-four years have bleached. |
b. To make pale with fear, etc.
| c 1760 Smollett Ode to Indep. 8 Immortal Liberty, whose look sublime Hath bleached the tyrant's cheek. |
c. Photogr. To remove the silver image from (a negative or print) after development; bleach-out process: a system of colour printing, now disused, whereby dyes are decolourized by being exposed through transparencies.
| 1889 R. Meldola Chem. of Photogr. vi. 209 A solution of potassium iodide also bleaches the darkened product of photo-decomposition under the influence of light. 1889 C. F. Townsend Chem. for Photographers (ed. 2) vi. 84 The image is first bleached with mercuric chloride, which converts the black silver image into a white double silver-mercurous chloride. 1911 B. E. Jones Cassell's Cycl. Photogr. 305/1 The negative is bleached in an acidified solution of bichromate salt, and then re-developed. 1914 G. L. Johnson Photogr. in Colours (ed. 2) xi. 169 The difficulty of reproducing colour transparencies..has at length been more or less overcome by the Bleach-out Process of colour printing. 1925 F. J. Mortimer Wall's Dict. Photogr. (ed. 11) 101 The print may be bleached after the final wash. 1936 J. Deschin New Ways in Photogr. xvii. 244 A photograph may be converted into a drawing by..the bleach-out process. |
3. a. intr. To become white, whiten; to become pale, pallid, or colourless.
| 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iii. 5 The white sheete bleaching on the hedge. 1709 Addison Tatler No. 154 ¶11 Virgil..describes some Spirits as bleaching in the Winds. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxi. (1856) 266 To see the faces around him bleaching into waxen paleness. c 1865 Letheby in Circ. Sc. I. 98/1 Different kinds of wax bleach with different degrees of facility. 1865 M. E. Braddon Sir Jasper i. I. 22, Bones of travellers bleaching amongst the yellow sand. |
b. fig. To become free from stain, be purified.
| 1799 Southey Wks. III. 63 The poor souls that bleach..In that great Purgatory crucible. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. i. xxi. (1865) 167 Where does the taint stop? Do you bleach in three or four generations? |
▪ V. † bleach, v.2 Obs.
[f. bleach n.2, or perhaps cogn. with it, and repr. an OE. *blæcean. Cf. bletch v.]
trans. To blacken, make black.
| 1611 Cotgr., Poislé..smeered, bleached, begrymed with soote. Ibid., Noircir, to blacke, blacken; bleach, darken. |
▪ VI. bleach, v.3
(? misprint) for bealch = belch.
| 1557 North Gueuara's Diall Pr. (1582) 102 b, To bleache and breake wind after his surfette. |