bleaching powder

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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.

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

Origin of bleaching powder

First recorded in 1850–55

Words nearby bleaching powder

bleach, bleacher, bleacherite, bleachers, bleachery, bleaching powder, bleak, Bleak House, blear, bleary, bleary-eyed

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use bleaching powder in a sentence

Place the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt on parchment or wax paper.
Make ‘The Chew’s’ Carla Hall’s Sticky Toffee Pudding|Carla Hall|December 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Other versions are coated in marzipan, or dusted in powder sugar.
One Cake to Rule Them All: How Stollen Stole Our Hearts|Molly Hannon|December 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This powder can be shipped anywhere and then reconstituted—just add water, as if it were instant coffee.
Powdered Measles Vaccine Could Be Huge for Developing World|Kent Sepkowitz|December 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
So the new inhaled powder measles vaccine may in a few years turn out to be an easier way to protect kids from measles.
Powdered Measles Vaccine Could Be Huge for Developing World|Kent Sepkowitz|December 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST

They say that the Israelis framed him in order to light the powder keg of religious war over the al-Aqsa compound.
In Jerusalem Home Demolitions, the Biblical Justice of Revenge|Creede Newton|November 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The law went into operation in England imposing a tax on wearing hair powder.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology|Joel Munsell
The girl began to hum, as she powdered her nose with a white glove, lying in a powder box.
Rosemary in Search of a Father|C. N. Williamson
Steam machinery would accomplish more than nine-tenths of all the work, besides saving the expense of all the powder.
Life of Richard Trevithick, Volume II (of 2)|Francis Trevithick
When first seen it is said to have had a pasty consistency, but on exposure to the air it dried and crumbled into powder.
Asbestos|Robert H. Jones
The poorest people reduce it to powder by manual labour, in the same way as they grind corn preparatory to baking it into cakes.
Life of Richard Trevithick, Volume II (of 2)|Francis Trevithick

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