bleaching powder

noun Chemistry.

a white powder that decomposes on contact with water and has the characteristic odor of gaseous chlorine: regarded, when dry, as a mixed calcium hypochlorite-chloride, used as a commercial bleach for wood pulp, textiles, oils, and soaps, and in laundering as a decolorizer and disinfectant.

Origin of bleaching powder

First recorded in 1850–55

Also called chloride of lime, chlorinated lime, calcium oxychloride.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bleaching powder

Historical Examples of bleaching powder

The important element in bleaching-powder is the chlorine which it contains.
Electricity and Magnetism
Elisha Gray
The second modification of bleaching-powder is designated "puratylene," and contains calcium chloride and quick or slaked lime.
Acetylene, The Principles Of Its Generation And Use
F. H. Leeds
As a special acetylene purifier, bleaching-powder exists in at least two chief modifications.
Acetylene, The Principles Of Its Generation And Use
F. H. Leeds
A solution of bleaching-powder gives with solution of the sulphate a purple colour changing to red-brown.
Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology
W. G. Aitchison Robertson
Arsenic is insoluble in the acid, but immediately dissolves in the bleaching-powder.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1
Various

British Dictionary definitions for bleaching powder

bleaching powder

noun

a white powder with the odour of chlorine, consisting of chlorinated calcium hydroxide with an approximate formula CaCl(OCl).4H 2 O. It is used in solution as a bleaching agent and disinfectantAlso called: chloride of lime, chlorinated lime

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012