clean

Are these dishes clean?
Your room is finally clean!
For a baby, happiness is a full bottle and a clean diaper.

Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean. There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC:

(physical) Free of dirt or impurities.
Not dirty, filthy, or soiled.

Put a clean sheet of paper into the printer.

(physical) Free of dirt or impurities.
In an unmarked condition.

(aerodynamics) Allowing an uninterrupted flow over surfaces, without protrusions such as racks or landing gear.

(aviation) Having the undercarriage and flaps in the up position.

(physical) Free of dirt or impurities.
Empty.

clean steel

(of metal) Having relatively few impurities.

Free of dirt or impurities.
Having relatively few impurities.

The cargo hold is clean.

Mister, I want to see a clean dinner plate or there'll be no dessert for you.

Our kids can watch this movie because it is clean.

Create in me a clean heart, O God.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 51:10:

Ah! let me knot be fool'd, sweet saints. I trust / That I am whole, and clean, and meet for Heaven.

1833 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “St. Simeon Stylites”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 63:

I do not think there is any member in this House who will not agree that that is the clean thing to do. Any member sitting on the Government benches will admit in private that that is the proper course for members who break faith.

1914, Parliamentary Debates, volume 168, New Zealand, page 195:

(behavioral) Free of immorality or criminality.

Pure, especially morally or religiously.

Pure, especially morally or religiously.

I've been clean this time for eight months.

Ten months sober, I must admit
Just because you're clean, don't mean you don't miss it
Ten months older, I won't give in
Now that I'm clean, I'm never gonna risk it

2014 October 27, Taylor Swift, Imogen Heap, “Clean (Taylor's Version)”, in 1989 (Taylor's Version), performed by Taylor Swift, published 2023 October 27:

Free of immorality or criminality.
Not having used drugs or alcohol.

Unlike you, I’ve never caused any accidents — my record is still clean!

(of criminal, driving, etc. records) Without restrictions or penalties, or someone having such a record.

behavioral; driving; etc. records; driving; etc. records

I'm clean, officer. You can go ahead and search me if you want.

(informal) Not in possession of weapons or contraband such as drugs.

Free of immorality or criminality.
Devoid of profanity.

I'll need a sharper knife to make clean cuts.

a clean leap over a fence

Moreover, I find there are some Words now in French which are turned to a Countersense […] Cocu is taken for one whose Wife is light, and hath made him a passive Cuckold; whereas clean contrary, Cocu, which is the Cuckow, doth use to lay her Eggs in another Bird's Nest.

1655, James Howell, “To the Right Honourable the Earl of Clare”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC:

(obsolete) Total; utter. (still in "clean sweep")

Wow, dude, those are some clean shoes ya got there!

"Serious as cognitohazard." Lillihammer danced down the corridor towards them, doing little pirouettes and leaping from toe to toe. "Reuben Wirth no longer exists. Gonna have to get Forsythe to do that brain scan to make sure I'm clean, but otherwise yeah. Poof."

2023 October 14, HarryBlank, “Face Time”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2024-05-23:

(health, of a person) Free of infection or disease.

I want to make sure my fiancé is clean before we are married.

sexually transmitted disease
sexually transmitted disease

(health) Devoid of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

clean energy

clean coal

clean land

clean timber

Free from that which is useless or injurious; without defects.

When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of corners of thy field.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 23:22:

Free from restraint or neglect; complete; entire.

clean limbs

(climbing, of a route) Ascended without falling.

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(professional wrestling slang) Of a victory or performance: without any submission holds, disqualification, interference, etc.

en-adj

clean (comparative cleaner, superlative cleanest)

cleaner (comparative)
cleanest (superlative)

skoon

not having used mind-altering or mood-changing substances

sileä

allowing an uninterrupted flow over surfaces

skoon

not having sexually transmitted diseases

skoon

not in possession of weapons or contraband such as drugs

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”).


clean

This place needs a clean.

(weightlifting) The first part of the event clean and jerk in which the weight is brought from the ground to the shoulders.

When people complained the songs were too hard, Kyle's clean vocals could bail out the band. Adding cleans would set off a chain reaction though - Kyle's crisp, clear presence could be seen as "betraying" the raw assault that Mike inflicts on the fans with his screams and growls.

2014, T/James Reagan, Leeds House, Amazon Digital Services LLC, →ISBN, page 314:

Vocalist Kaan is impeccable in his performance engaging with the crowd and soulfully executing both searing screams and hauntingly melodic cleans.

2016, Jay Shields, “Tech Fest 2016”, in Fraser Mutch, editor, Elite Online Mag, number 78, page 155:

The band's more recent output has seen a small amount of cleans find their way in, but for the most part, the Pennsylvania boys rely on the kind of devastating vocal delivery that can be heard on monumental career highlights such as "Marianas Trench."

2023 April 17, Jake Richardson, “10 Best Clean Singers in Metalcore”, in Loudwire, archived from the original on 2024-08-17:

(in the plural, metal music) Clear vocals, contrasted with death growls and screams.

изтласкване

first part of "clean and jerk" weightlifting


clean

Can you clean the windows today?

(transitive) To remove dirt from a place or object.

Clean your room right now!

(transitive) To tidy up, make a place neat.

(transitive, climbing) To remove equipment from a climbing route after it was previously lead climbed.

She just likes to clean. That’s why I married her.

(intransitive) To make things clean in general.

(transitive, computing) To remove unnecessary files, etc. from (a directory, etc.).

(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.

(manga fandom slang) To purge a raw of any blemishes caused by the scanning process such as brown tinting and poor color contrast.

To remove guts and/or scales of a butchered animal.

en-verb

clean (third-person singular simple present cleans, present participle cleaning, simple past and past participle cleaned)

cleans (present singular third-person)
cleaning (participle present)
cleaned (participle past)
cleaned (past)

pastroj

(transitive) to remove dirt from a place or object

(kevyesti) harjata

(intransitive) to brush lightly in front of a curling rock


clean

He was stabbed clean through.

You must be clean mad.

So, since all my pains in his direction were clean thrown away, there was nothing left for me but to scurry back to Marjorie, — so I scurried, and I found the house empty, no one there, and Marjorie gone.

A feat sometimes achieved by outstanding local athletes is to throw a cricket ball clean over the top [of the viaduct].

1951 October, William B. Stocks, “A Few Miles from Huddersfield”, in Railway Magazine, page 701:

The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC: