clean
adjEtymology
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *klainī Old English clǣne Middle English clene English clean From Middle English clene, clane, from Old English clǣne (“clean, pure”), from Proto-West Germanic *klainī (“shining, fine, splendid, tender”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *glēy- (“gleaming”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to gleam”). Cognate with Scots clean (“absolute, pure, clear, empty”) and clene, clane (“clean”), North Frisian klien (“small”), West Frisian klien (“small”), klean (“clean”), Dutch klein (“small”), Low German kleen (“small”), German klein (“small”), Swedish klen (“weak, feeble, delicate”), Icelandic klénn (“poor, feeble, petty, snug, puny, cheesy, lame”).
- inherited from clene
Definitions
Free of dirt, filth, or impurities (extraneous matter)
Free of dirt, filth, or impurities (extraneous matter); not dirty, filthy, or soiled.
- Are these dishes clean? Your room is finally clean! For a baby, happiness is a full bottle and a clean diaper.
- Very fine, well-sorted, clean sand with no shells.
Free of contamination, (unwanted) germs, infection, or disease.
- Insert a clean swab into your nose.
Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects.
- Our team won, but it wasn't clean.
›+ 25 more definitionsshow fewer
Free of immorality or criminality.
- Our kids can watch this movie because it is clean.
- Create in me a clean heart, O God.
- Ah! let me knot be fool'd, sweet saints. I trust / That I am whole, and clean, and meet for Heaven.
Free of infiltration by covert listening or recording devices (bugs), enemy spies, etc.
- We are currently clean on OPSEC.
- "[Are you sure the] room is clean?" "As a whistle. It's swept at irregular intervals every week." "That still leaves time to plant a bug[…]"
Empty.
- The cargo hold is clean.
- Mister, I want to see a clean dinner plate or there'll be no dessert for you.
Smooth, exact, and performed well.
- I'll need a sharper knife to make clean cuts.
- a clean leap over a fence
- a clean left-footed shot into the top corner of the goal
That does not damage the environment (as much as some alternative).
- clean energy
- clean coal
- clean tourism
Allowing an uninterrupted flow over surfaces, without protrusions such as racks or…
Allowing an uninterrupted flow over surfaces, without protrusions such as racks or landing gear.
Having the undercarriage and flaps in the up position.
Well-proportioned
Well-proportioned; shapely.
- clean limbs
Cool or neat.
- Wow, dude, those are some clean shoes ya got there!
Utter, complete, total
Utter, complete, total; pure; free from restraint.
- a clean sweep
- When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of corners of thy field.
- The clean thrill of getting the right answer gave me a sense of efficacy and rootedness. Even so, on tests at school I rarely got good grades, because I had a terrible habit of not showing my work.
A removal of dirt.
- This place needs a clean.
- Give the pan a thorough clean.
The first part of the event clean and jerk in which the weight is brought from the ground…
The first part of the event clean and jerk in which the weight is brought from the ground to the shoulders.
Of heavy metal, clear vocals, contrasted with death growls and screams.
- Vocalist Kaan is impeccable in his performance engaging with the crowd and soulfully executing both searing screams and hauntingly melodic cleans.
To remove dirt from a place or object.
- Can you clean the windows today?
To tidy up, make a place neat.
- Clean your room right now!
To remove equipment from a climbing route after it was previously lead climbed.
To make things clean in general.
- She just likes to clean. That’s why I married her.
To remove unnecessary files, etc. from (a directory, etc.).
To brush the ice lightly in front of a moving rock to remove any debris and ensure a…
To brush the ice lightly in front of a moving rock to remove any debris and ensure a correct line; less vigorous than a sweep.
To purge a raw of any blemishes caused by the scanning process such as brown tinting and…
To purge a raw of any blemishes caused by the scanning process such as brown tinting and poor color contrast.
Synonym of clean up.
To remove guts and/or scales of a butchered animal.
- The fishmonger cleaned the mackerel.
To beat, to thrash
To beat, to thrash; to defeat.
Fully and completely.
- He was stabbed clean through.
- You must be clean mad.
- The wave went clean over the old lighthouse.
A surname.
The neighborhood
- synonymclean
- synonymclean as a bean
- synonymclean as a hound's tooth
- synonymclean as a new penny
- synonymclean as a new pin
- synonymclean as a whistle
- synonymimmaculate
- synonympristine
- synonymspick-and-span
- synonymspotless
- synonymsqueaky clean
- synonymstainless
- antonymdirty
- antonymunclean
- neighborpure
- neighbormake clean
- neighbordry-clean
- neighborvacuum-clean
Derived
a new broom sweeps clean, bioclean, broom-clean, certificate of clean criminal record, cleanaholic, clean as a bean, clean as a hound's tooth, clean as a new penny, clean as a new pin, clean as a whistle, clean bill of health, clean bomb, clean bowl, clean break, clean bulk, clean chit, clean coal, clean code, clean coder, clean copy, clean eating, clean electricity, clean fashion, clean feed, clean fetish, clean fill, clean float, cleanfluencer, clean freak, clean girl, clean-handed, clean hands, clean house, cleanish, clean-label, clean label, clean language, clean-limbed, clean link, clean-living · +63 more
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at clean. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at clean. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
8 hops · closes at clean
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA