"clean someone's clock" meaning in English

See clean someone's clock in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-clean someone's clock.ogg Forms: cleans someone's clock [present, singular, third-person], cleaning someone's clock [participle, present], cleaned someone's clock [participle, past], cleaned someone's clock [past]
Etymology: Originally military slang; perhaps from clock face. Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} clean someone's clock (third-person singular simple present cleans someone's clock, present participle cleaning someone's clock, simple past and past participle cleaned someone's clock)
  1. (idiomatic, informal) To defeat someone decisively, in a physical fight or other competition or negotiation. Tags: idiomatic, informal Categories (topical): Violence Synonyms: fix someone's clock, trounce, wipe the floor with someone Derived forms: get one's clock cleaned Translations (defeat decisively): met iemand de vloer aanvegen (Dutch), iemand uitschakelen (Dutch), battre à plate couture (French), καθαρίζω κάποιον σαν αβγό (katharízo kápoion san avgó) (Greek), разде́лать под оре́х (razdélatʹ pod oréx) (Russian), разма́зать по сте́нке (razmázatʹ po sténke) (Russian)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Originally military slang; perhaps from clock face.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cleans someone's clock",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleaning someone's clock",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleaned someone's clock",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleaned someone's clock",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "clean someone's clock (third-person singular simple present cleans someone's clock, present participle cleaning someone's clock, simple past and past participle cleaned someone's clock)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Greek translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Violence",
          "orig": "en:Violence",
          "parents": [
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "get one's clock cleaned"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1997 November 12, Richard W. Stevenson, “Executives Say Trade Bill Defeat Will Hurt Economy”, in New York Times, retrieved 2008-10-07:",
          "text": "\"When big business goes head to head with unions, the unions clean their clock,\" said one Republican aide in Congress.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 April 28, Carla Marinucci, “Hillary on a roll”, in San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved 2008-10-07:",
          "text": "Barack Obama cleaned her clock in the debates.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 September 27, Jake Donovan, “Vicente Escobedo Rallies, Stops Dominic Salcido In Six”, in BoxingScene.com, retrieved 2008-10-07:",
          "text": "The heavily-tattooed Perez never recovered, getting nailed with flush head shots before a clean-up left hook cleaned his clock.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To defeat someone decisively, in a physical fight or other competition or negotiation."
      ],
      "id": "en-clean_someone's_clock-en-verb-OTr1NAGO",
      "links": [
        [
          "defeat",
          "defeat"
        ],
        [
          "decisively",
          "decisively"
        ],
        [
          "fight",
          "fight"
        ],
        [
          "competition",
          "competition"
        ],
        [
          "negotiation",
          "negotiation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, informal) To defeat someone decisively, in a physical fight or other competition or negotiation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "fix someone's clock"
        },
        {
          "word": "trounce"
        },
        {
          "word": "wipe the floor with someone"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "defeat decisively",
          "word": "met iemand de vloer aanvegen"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "defeat decisively",
          "word": "iemand uitschakelen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "defeat decisively",
          "word": "battre à plate couture"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "katharízo kápoion san avgó",
          "sense": "defeat decisively",
          "word": "καθαρίζω κάποιον σαν αβγό"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "razdélatʹ pod oréx",
          "sense": "defeat decisively",
          "word": "разде́лать под оре́х"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "razmázatʹ po sténke",
          "sense": "defeat decisively",
          "word": "разма́зать по сте́нке"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-clean someone's clock.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ad/En-au-clean_someone%27s_clock.ogg/En-au-clean_someone%27s_clock.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/En-au-clean_someone%27s_clock.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "clean someone's clock"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "get one's clock cleaned"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Originally military slang; perhaps from clock face.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cleans someone's clock",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleaning someone's clock",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleaned someone's clock",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "cleaned someone's clock",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "clean someone's clock (third-person singular simple present cleans someone's clock, present participle cleaning someone's clock, simple past and past participle cleaned someone's clock)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Dutch translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with Greek translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "en:Violence"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1997 November 12, Richard W. Stevenson, “Executives Say Trade Bill Defeat Will Hurt Economy”, in New York Times, retrieved 2008-10-07:",
          "text": "\"When big business goes head to head with unions, the unions clean their clock,\" said one Republican aide in Congress.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 April 28, Carla Marinucci, “Hillary on a roll”, in San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved 2008-10-07:",
          "text": "Barack Obama cleaned her clock in the debates.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 September 27, Jake Donovan, “Vicente Escobedo Rallies, Stops Dominic Salcido In Six”, in BoxingScene.com, retrieved 2008-10-07:",
          "text": "The heavily-tattooed Perez never recovered, getting nailed with flush head shots before a clean-up left hook cleaned his clock.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To defeat someone decisively, in a physical fight or other competition or negotiation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "defeat",
          "defeat"
        ],
        [
          "decisively",
          "decisively"
        ],
        [
          "fight",
          "fight"
        ],
        [
          "competition",
          "competition"
        ],
        [
          "negotiation",
          "negotiation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, informal) To defeat someone decisively, in a physical fight or other competition or negotiation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "fix someone's clock"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-clean someone's clock.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ad/En-au-clean_someone%27s_clock.ogg/En-au-clean_someone%27s_clock.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/En-au-clean_someone%27s_clock.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "trounce"
    },
    {
      "word": "wipe the floor with someone"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "defeat decisively",
      "word": "met iemand de vloer aanvegen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "defeat decisively",
      "word": "iemand uitschakelen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "defeat decisively",
      "word": "battre à plate couture"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "katharízo kápoion san avgó",
      "sense": "defeat decisively",
      "word": "καθαρίζω κάποιον σαν αβγό"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "razdélatʹ pod oréx",
      "sense": "defeat decisively",
      "word": "разде́лать под оре́х"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "razmázatʹ po sténke",
      "sense": "defeat decisively",
      "word": "разма́зать по сте́нке"
    }
  ],
  "word": "clean someone's clock"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (eaedd02 and 8fbd9e8). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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