bleached

UK/bliːt͡ʃt/US/bliːt͡ʃt/

adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,411 of 15,258neutral

Bleached means whitened by chemicals or by strong sun. Bleached hair, bleached bones, sun-bleached wood.

The chemical kind strips the colour out rather than covering it, which is why bleached hair is damaged hair. Coral bleaching is different and serious: the coral expels the algae that feed it when the water is too warm, and turns white. Note bleach, from an old word meaning to make pale.

Definitions of bleached

1adjectivebleachedWhitened by chemicals or by strong sun.B2+
“The bleached bones of a cow lay in the desert sand.”

bleached is a quality of whiteness.

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bleached in the wild

The hair is bleached such that the tips of each spike will be pale blond, usually in contrast to the wearer's main hair color.
Frosted tips
Other variants, such as inverted or "thawed" tips, where dark highlights are applied to the gelled ends of the person's hair that is otherwise heavily bleached.
Frosted tips
The island is approximately 70 acres in area and is known for "bleached, rugged granite shores".
Whitehead Island
In the complexion of a third still lingers a tropic tawn, but slightly bleached withal; he doubtless has tarried whole weeks ashore.
Moby Dick; Or, The Whale· Herman Melville

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

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