Definition of "bleach"

Candifacio, to make whyte, to bleache, to make to glowe lyke a burnyng cole.

1538, Thomas Elyot, The Dictionary of Syr Thomas Eliot Knyght‎, London: Thomas Berthelet

Immortal liberty, whose look sublimeHath bleach’d the Tyrant’s Cheek in every varying Clime.

1774, Tobias Smollett, Independence: An Ode‎, London: J. Murray, page 8

The destruction of the colouring matters attached to the bodies to be bleached is effected either by the action of the air and light, of chlorine, or of sulphurous acid.

1830, Andrew Ure, “BLEACHING”, in A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines‎, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, page 128

The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]

[…] when Mrs. Giddy-gaddy came to take out her clothes, deep green stains appeared on every thing, for she had forgotten the green silk lining of a certain cape, and its color had soaked nicely into the pink and blue gowns, the little chemises, and even the best ruffled petticoat. […] “Lay them on the grass to bleach,” said Daisy, with an air of experience.

1871, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 15, in Little Men: […], Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers

The autumn trees, ravaged as they are, take on the flash of tattered flags kindling in the gloom of cool cathedral caves where gold letters on marble pages describe death in battle and how bones bleach and burn far away in Indian sands.

1927, Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse‎, London: The Hogarth Press, published 1920, Part 2, p. 198