Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

Tony 1963 · Joined: 24 Dec 2005 Posts: 129

Hi,

I can not understand the following sentence:

" She bleached her hair blond."

bleach means "make white"; I can understand it if you say "she bleached her hair white." How can she bleach her hair blond?

Thanks.

Tony

Anuradha Chepur · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 933

You are right that bleach means make white. In beauty parlour jargon, it could be stretched to mean make lighter.

Tony 1963 · Joined: 24 Dec 2005 Posts: 129

thanks.

Lorikeet · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 1877 Location: San Francisco

Dictionary.com gives as its first definition of bleach,

"to make whiter or lighter in color, as by exposure to sunlight or a chemical agent; remove the color from. "

Anuradha Chepur · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 933

In India, we use the verb colour.
She coloured her hair blond.

Lorikeet · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 1877 Location: San Francisco

We can say of someone whose hair got lighter because of being out in the sun during the summer, "His/her hair was bleached by the sun." Do you have something similar? I'm not sure if dark hair can be bleached by the sun though. It's usually light brown hair that gets more blond, or "dirty blond" that gets blonder.

Anuradha Chepur · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 933