mind bleach

9.8

Something that helps you forget a bad memory or picture

noun

Slang

: borrador mental

After watching that scary movie, I need some mind bleach to forget those images.

Examples

She joked that a little mind bleach was necessary after hearing the gossip.
To cope with the trauma, he often referred to his favorite books as mind bleach.
T-Rex, where's the eyewash and mind bleach?

Blog text (26)

Antonyms

to remember

∞ 1.0

To think about something from the past

recollection

116 3.8

A memory of something from the past or the act of remembering it

Surface Forms

mind bleach singular

mind bleaches plural

Morphology

mind + bleach

The sense 'erase unpleasant memories' is inferable by mapping the physical action of 'bleach' (removing color/stains) onto the 'mind', so a learner who knows both words can plausibly guess a metaphorical meaning of mental cleansing. However, this is a creative metaphorical extension rather than a standard compositional pattern, so the exact nuance and idiomaticity may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

Mind bleach imagines using bleach to clean the mind and wash away bad pictures or memories. That's why it means 'erase bad memories'.