clean
/kliːn/ adjective, noun, verb, adverb, proper noun
Forms cleaner cleanest cleans cleaning cleaned clane cleane
- adjective 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.”
- adjective Of metal, having relatively few impurities. “clean steel”
- adjective (slang) Not muscular due to steroid use. “I don't think he's clean, look at those traps.”
- adjective Free of contamination, (unwanted) germs, infection, or disease. “Insert a clean swab into your nose.”
- adjective Devoid of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). “I want to make sure my fiancé is clean before we are married.”
- adjective (sports, for example, professional wrestling, slang) Of a victory or performance: without any blemishes such as submission holds, disqualification, interference, etc.
- adjective (climbing) Of a route, ascended without falling.
- adjective Free from that which is useless or injurious; without defects. “clean land”
- noun A removal of dirt. “This place needs a clean.”
- noun (weightlifting) The first part of the event clean and jerk in which the weight is brought from the ground to the shoulders.
- noun (music, in the plural) Of heavy metal, clear vocals, contrasted with death growls and screams.
- verb (transitive) To remove dirt from a place or object. “Can you clean the windows today?”
- verb (transitive) To tidy up, make a place neat. “Clean your room right now!”
- verb (intransitive) To make things clean in general. “She just likes to clean. That’s why I married her.”
- verb (transitive, climbing) To remove equipment from a climbing route after it was previously lead climbed.
- verb (transitive, computing) To remove unnecessary files, etc. from (a directory, etc.).
- verb (intransitive, curling) 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.
- verb (manga fandom slang) To purge a raw of any blemishes caused by the scanning process such as brown tinting and poor color contrast.
- verb (weightlifting, transitive) To lift a weight from the ground to one's shoulders.
- adverb Fully and completely. “He was stabbed clean through.”
Synonyms
vacant void empty empty as a pauper's purse empty as the tomb on Easter leer toom unfilled vacuumlike vacuous clean as a bean clean as a hound's tooth clean as a new penny clean as a new pin clean as a whistle immaculate pristine spick-and-span spotless squeaky clean clean and jerk make clean pick houseclean clean house cleanse strip scavenge clear light
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English clene, from Old English clāne, clǣne (“clean; pure; clear”), from Proto-West Germanic *klainī (“dainty, fine, small; clean”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *glēy- (“gleaming”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to gleam”).
Cognate with Alemannic German chlei, chli, chlii, chly, klei (“small”), Bavarian gloa, kla, klaa, kloa, kloan (“small; young; insignificant”), Central Franconian and Low German kleen (“small”), Cimbrian khlòan, khlumma (“small”), Dutch and German klein (“small”), Limburgish klein, kléïn (“small”), Luxembourgish kleng (“small”), Mòcheno khloa'n (“small”), Vilamovian klin (“small”), Yiddish קליין (kleyn, “small”), Danish klejn (“delicate, tiny”), Faroese klænur (“slight, slim, thin”), Icelandic klénn (“feeble, poor; indisposed; short; lame; good, pretty, snug”), Norwegian Bokmål klein, klen (“slender; sick; feeble; bad, poor, weak; inept”), Swedish klen (“weak”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Free from dirt or filth; as, clean clothes.
- adjective Free from that which is useless or injurious; without defects; as, clean land; clean timber.
- adverb Without limitation or remainder; quite; perfectly; wholly; entirely. "Domestic broils clean overblown." Shak. "Clean contrary." Milton.
- adverb Without miscarriage; not bunglingly; dexterously. [Obs.] "Pope came off clean with Homer." Henley.
Etymology [OE. clene, AS. cl; akin to OHG. chleini pure, neat, graceful, small, G. klein small, and perh. to W. glan clean, pure, bright; all perh. from a primitive, meaning bright, shining. Cf. Glair.]
Etymology [See Clean, a., and cf. Cleanse.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “clean”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details