to bleach out
1
3.8
- phrasal verb
- /bliːtʃ aʊt/
:
decolorar
- It was the end of September, a bright dry season, when everything in the landscape bleached out.
- bleached out by the sun
- bleached out the color
Well, when he went to process them, he passed them through a fairy cyanide solution which bleached them out.
- Well, when he went to process them, he passed them through a fairy cyanide solution which bleached them out.
Examples
-
Hair is starting to bleach out.
Fiction book (1991) -
Can you bleach out urine stains?
-
The screen starts to bleach out... it goes white and
Fiction book (1990) -
Things kind of almost get bleached out and having a little bit more dimension is so helpful.
-
The flags may be all white if the UV light has likely bleached all the color out.
Blog text (19) -
Second, the coleus I used Alberto cannot handle our sun, our full sun, so they it just bleaches out and it starts to dry up.
-
Lights glared off the white walls and bleached out the faces of an orderly pushing an empty wheelchair and a nurse who rolled a clattering medicine trolley.
Fiction book (1990) -
The bright sunlight caused the curtains to bleach out over time.
-
If you leave that colored shirt outside for too long, it will bleach out and lose its vibrancy.
-
Using harsh chemicals can make your hair bleach out and turn lighter than intended.
Synonyms
50
3.2
To make something lighter in color, often using chemicals or sunlight
16
2.3
To make a place or color look brighter
11
4.1
To become faded or stained
8
2.8
Make or become more white in color
8
5.9
To make something very light in color
2
4.0
Make a color on clothes become lighter when you clean them
1
7.1
To make the colors in a picture less bright so it looks more gray
To make something lose its color or become lighter
To take the color out of something like fabric or a photograph
To make something lose its color
To make something lose its color or become lighter
To remove unwanted color from a lens so images have no colored edges
Antonyms
How White
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to make something become white or lighter' is directly derivable from combining 'bleach' (to remove color or whiten) with the particle 'out' that signals thoroughness or completion; together they transparently convey removing color until light/white. This verb+out compositional pattern is common in English and would be predictable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent meanings.
Etymology
The phrasal verb bleach out comes from a simple image: sun or chemicals make cloth or photos lose their color, as if the color is pushed out by bleach. That's why bleach out means 'to make something white or lighter in color'.