"cleaner-upper" meaning in English

See cleaner-upper in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: cleaner-uppers [plural]
Etymology: From clean up + -er. Compare Australian slang cleaner-upperer. Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|clean up|er|id2=agent noun}} clean up + -er, {{m|en|cleaner-upperer}} cleaner-upperer Head templates: {{en-noun}} cleaner-upper (plural cleaner-uppers)
  1. (informal) A person responsible for cleaning or tidying up. Tags: informal Synonyms: cleaner-upperer
    Sense id: en-cleaner-upper-en-noun-ooOlUswm Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -er (agent noun)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for cleaner-upper meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "clean up",
        "3": "er",
        "id2": "agent noun"
      },
      "expansion": "clean up + -er",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "cleaner-upperer"
      },
      "expansion": "cleaner-upperer",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From clean up + -er. Compare Australian slang cleaner-upperer.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cleaner-uppers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "cleaner-upper (plural cleaner-uppers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -er (agent noun)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1992, Studies in American Drama, 1945-present - Volumes 7-8, page 86",
          "text": "I want to know how you became a cleaner-upper! A custodian of man's material junk!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, H. Olivia Kittrell, The Nanny World: Heaven Or H---? : a Nanny Agency's Perception, page 11",
          "text": "If we were to consider the role of a parent who is totally responsible during the day for children of varying ages, with no assistance, the job description would read in part: Diaper changer, bottle feeder, bottle washer, rocker, laundress, clothes putter-upper, ironer, dishwasher, meal-planner and cook, grocery shopper, hugger, plaground mate, track star, safety oordinator, sympathizer, story reader, clown, nurse, checker player, artist, tutor, rule maker, disciplinarian, supporter and encourager, teacher, activities chairman, religious educator, car pooler, cheerleader at games, cookie maker, party planner, seamstress, clothes shopper, librarian, transportation director to the doctor, school, soccer, museum, or park, mess cleaner-upper, mediator, friend supervisor, bathroom supervisor, bath supervisor, toothbrush director, medicine giver, manners chairman and reminder, schedule maker, TV critic, pet feeder, taker of pets to vet, judge, arbitrator, role model, gardener, and toilet trainer.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Juliet Schor, Douglas B. Holt, The Consumer Society Reader, page 32",
          "text": "This professionalization is a psychological defense of the housewife against being a general “cleaner-upper” and menial servant for her family in a day and age of general work emancipation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person responsible for cleaning or tidying up."
      ],
      "id": "en-cleaner-upper-en-noun-ooOlUswm",
      "links": [
        [
          "responsible",
          "responsible"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A person responsible for cleaning or tidying up."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "cleaner-upperer"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cleaner-upper"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "clean up",
        "3": "er",
        "id2": "agent noun"
      },
      "expansion": "clean up + -er",
      "name": "suffix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "cleaner-upperer"
      },
      "expansion": "cleaner-upperer",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From clean up + -er. Compare Australian slang cleaner-upperer.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "cleaner-uppers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "cleaner-upper (plural cleaner-uppers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms suffixed with -er (agent noun)",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1992, Studies in American Drama, 1945-present - Volumes 7-8, page 86",
          "text": "I want to know how you became a cleaner-upper! A custodian of man's material junk!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, H. Olivia Kittrell, The Nanny World: Heaven Or H---? : a Nanny Agency's Perception, page 11",
          "text": "If we were to consider the role of a parent who is totally responsible during the day for children of varying ages, with no assistance, the job description would read in part: Diaper changer, bottle feeder, bottle washer, rocker, laundress, clothes putter-upper, ironer, dishwasher, meal-planner and cook, grocery shopper, hugger, plaground mate, track star, safety oordinator, sympathizer, story reader, clown, nurse, checker player, artist, tutor, rule maker, disciplinarian, supporter and encourager, teacher, activities chairman, religious educator, car pooler, cheerleader at games, cookie maker, party planner, seamstress, clothes shopper, librarian, transportation director to the doctor, school, soccer, museum, or park, mess cleaner-upper, mediator, friend supervisor, bathroom supervisor, bath supervisor, toothbrush director, medicine giver, manners chairman and reminder, schedule maker, TV critic, pet feeder, taker of pets to vet, judge, arbitrator, role model, gardener, and toilet trainer.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Juliet Schor, Douglas B. Holt, The Consumer Society Reader, page 32",
          "text": "This professionalization is a psychological defense of the housewife against being a general “cleaner-upper” and menial servant for her family in a day and age of general work emancipation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person responsible for cleaning or tidying up."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "responsible",
          "responsible"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A person responsible for cleaning or tidying up."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "cleaner-upperer"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "cleaner-upper"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.