bleach, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bleach v.

[? play on SE blank out]

(US campus) to miss a class or other meeting, e.g. morning chapel.

1836–7		Harvardiana III 123: ’T is sweet Commencement parts to reach, / Bot, oh! ’t is doubly sweet to bleach.
1856		B.H. Hall College Words 28: bleach. At Harvard College, he was formerly said to bleach who preferred to be spiritually rather than bodily present at morning prayers.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 23: bleach, v.t. To absent oneself from chapel.
1938		Des Moines Register (IA) 6 Mar. 14/4: When they do not go to classes they ‘blitz’ or ‘bleach’ them.

bleach-cheat (n.) [cheat n. (1)]

a sheep.

a.1790

H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).

bleacher (n.) [her job, bleaching clothes]

1. (also bleecher) a woman, usu. pej.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 92/2: bleacher A (reprehensible) girl or woman ?ca. 1790–1860 [...] bleecher see bleacher.

2. (UK, Glasgow) a maidservant.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 92/2: —1934.

bleachification (n.) [SE bleach, a whitening agent; such blocks were often black or Puerto Rican; their new, richer owners will be white]

(US) the gentrification of former working-class blocks.

1995		P. Bourgois In Search of Respect 164: Economists and real estate agents call this gentrification. On the street, I heard it referred to as ‘bleachification’.
2000		CRJS355 Communities and Crime Study Questions for Exam 18: What is ‘bleachification’?

bleach-bottle blonde (n.)

bleached mort (n.) (also bleak mort, bleak mot) [mort n.¹]

a woman with a pale complexion.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: bleached mort, a fair complexioned wench.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: bleak mort a fair girl.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		Flash Dict.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 6: Bleak mot – a fair girl.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
1859		Matsell Vocabulum [as cit. 1809].

unbleached American (n.) [properly used of cloth and one of the earliest efforts to find a euph. for such derog. terms as nigger n.¹ (1)]

an African-American; thus unbleached adj., African-American.

[1834		Ely’s Hawk and Buzzard (N.Y.) 21 June 21 4/1: It is possible that Mr. Richards may have acquired that sallow hue of complexion from undue exposure to the sun. [...] Your correspondent, therefore, who talks deridingly of an ‘unbleached phiz’ [is unjust]. [...] His wearing green spectacles [...] does not arise from ostentation, or a desire to cut a buck].
1846		Yankee Doodle I 4/1: While in Europe our specimen of Unbleached American Domestics was invited to address Every Body’s Convention [DA].
1867		H. Macarthy Deeds of Darkness 2: Ikey Pyke (a gentleman of dark complexion, sometimes called an unbleached American citizen).
1870		Fetter Lane to Gravesend in Darkey Drama 5 I: Why de unbleached feller has de impudence to let somebody else into my car!
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 281: In familiar intercourse, he [‘the Negro’] appeared [...] humorously as an unbleached American.
1899		in H.T. Sampson Ghost Walks (1988) 186: The various appearances of the ‘Unbleached’ fun-maker were signals for more laughter.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Unbleached gang, negro convicts. Unbleached prince, a negro guard or policeman.
1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl. §385.14: negro, Africamerican, unbleached American.
1983		(con. 1880s–90s) I.L. Allen Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 47: Color Allusions, Other than ‘Black’ and ‘Negro’: […] unbleached-american [late 19th century].

unbleached Australian (n.) (also unbleached Aussie) [see unbleached American ]

a Native Australian, an Aboriginal; thus unbleached adj., Aboriginal.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 11/1: At the same time, however, it is consoling to note that our unbleached sister is doing her level best, by kindly care, wholesome advice, and the occasional planting of bottles up hollow logs, to stem the fatal effects of the flowing bowl.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 90: Unbleached Australians, aboriginals.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 241/2: unbleached aussies – aborigines.