Pronunciations (11)
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/kliːn/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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[kʰl̥iːn]
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/kliːn/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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[kʰl̥ĩːn]
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/kleːn/
Pronunciation notes
- Ireland
- dated
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[kʰl̥eːn]
Pronunciation notes
- Ireland
- dated
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/kliːn/
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[kʰl̥iːn]
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kliːn
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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klin
Pronunciation notes
- US
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kleːn
Pronunciation notes
- IE
Adjective
Free of dirt, filth, or impurities (extraneous matter); not dirty, filthy, or soiled.
- Examples
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Please use a clean cup.
Are these dishes clean? Your room is finally clean! For a baby, happiness is a full bottle and a clean diaper.
More examples (1)
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.
Very fine, well-sorted, clean sand with no shells.
More examples (1)
Scientists believe they have identified the world’s cleanest air, free from particles caused by human activity, located over the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica.
Free of dirt, filth, or impurities (extraneous matter); not dirty, filthy, or soiled. Of metal, having relatively few impurities.
- Examples
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clean steel
Free of dirt, filth, or impurities (extraneous matter); not dirty, filthy, or soiled. Not muscular due to steroid use.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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I don't think he's clean, look at those traps.
Free of contamination, (unwanted) germs, infection, or disease.
- Examples
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Insert a clean swab into your nose.
More examples (1)
"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."
Free of contamination, (unwanted) germs, infection, or disease. Devoid of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
- Examples
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I want to make sure my fiancé is clean before we are married.
Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects. Of a victory or performance: without any blemishes such as submission holds, disqualification, interference, etc.
Usage- Slang
- for example
- Examples
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Our team won, but it wasn't clean.
Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects. Of a route, ascended without falling.
Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects. Free from that which is useless or injurious; without defects.
- Examples
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clean land
clean timber
Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects. In an unmarked condition; blank.
- Examples
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Put a clean sheet of paper into the printer.
Free of immorality or criminality. Pure, especially morally or religiously.
- Examples
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Our kids can watch this movie because it is clean.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
More examples (2)
Ah! let me knot be fool'd, sweet saints. I trust / That I am whole, and clean, and meet for Heaven.
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.
Free of immorality or criminality. Not using drugs or alcohol.
- Examples
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go clean
I've been clean this time for eight months.
More examples (1)
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
Free of immorality or criminality. Free from (or showing no signs of) corrupt, unlawful, and/or sinister conduct or connections (and (of criminal, driving, etc. records) therefore without restrictions or penalties).
- Examples
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More examples (2)
It was my dream to be a Soviet spy. The vetting process started, and I was “clean”: no Jews in either my background or my wife's, no relatives abroad, already a member of the Soviet Communist Party, high marks on exams, three foreign languages, no dissident inclinations[…]
"If the Tramells hadn't passed away, we still wouldn't know. The background check was clean." "How can it be clean, for fuck's sake?" I knocked back the whiskey in one swallow. "Eva's mother used Monica's name, birthdate, and family history, but she never opened a line of credit, which is how most identity theft is discovered."
Unlike you, I’ve never caused any accidents — my record is still clean!
Free of immorality or criminality. Not in possession of weapons or contraband such as drugs.
Usage- Informal
- Examples
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I'm clean, officer. You can go ahead and search me if you want.
Free of immorality or criminality. Devoid of profanity.
Usage- Informal
Free of infiltration by covert listening or recording devices (bugs), enemy spies, etc.
- Examples
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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.
- Examples
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The cargo hold is clean.
The condo was stripped clean by the previous tenant.
More examples (1)
Mister, I want to see a clean dinner plate or there'll be no dessert for you.
Smooth, exact, and performed well.
- Examples
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I'll need a sharper knife to make clean cuts.
a clean leap over a fence
More examples (1)
a clean left-footed shot into the top corner of the goal
That does not damage the environment (as much as some alternative).
- Examples
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clean energy
clean coal
More examples (2)
clean tourism
In a press release, CARB expanded on their decision. "The LCFS reduces air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by setting a declining carbon intensity target for transportation fuels used in California; producers that don't meet established benchmarks buy credits from those that do. This system has generated $4 billion in annual private sector investment toward a cleaner transportation sector."
Allowing an uninterrupted flow over surfaces, without protrusions such as racks or landing gear.
Having the undercarriage and flaps in the up position.
- Antonyms
Well-proportioned; shapely.
- Examples
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clean limbs
Cool or neat.
Usage- Informal
- Examples
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Wow, dude, those are some clean shoes ya got there!
Utter, complete, total; pure; free from restraint.
- Examples
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a clean sweep
When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of corners of thy field.
More examples (1)
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.
Noun
A removal of dirt.
- Examples
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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 to the shoulders.
Of heavy metal, clear vocals, contrasted with death growls and screams.
Usage- in-plural
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Vocalist Kaan is impeccable in his performance engaging with the crowd and soulfully executing both searing screams and hauntingly melodic cleans.
More examples (1)
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."
Verb
To remove dirt from a place or object.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Please clean the table.
Can you clean the windows today?
To tidy up, make a place neat.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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We need to clean this room.
Clean your room right now!
To make things clean in general.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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She just likes to clean. That’s why I married her.
To remove equipment from a climbing route after it was previously lead climbed.
Usage- Transitive
To remove unnecessary files, etc. from (a directory, etc.).
Usage- Transitive
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.
Usage- Intransitive
To purge a raw of any blemishes caused by the scanning process such as brown tinting and poor color contrast.
Usage- Slang
To lift a weight from the ground to one's shoulders.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Mike Aidala grunts as he cleans and presses 300 pounds up from the floor of his garage.
Synonym of clean up.
To remove guts and/or scales of a butchered animal.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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The fishmonger cleaned the mackerel.
To beat, to thrash; to defeat.
Usage- Slang
Adverb
Fully and completely.
- Examples
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He was stabbed clean through.
You must be clean mad.
More examples (7)
The wave went clean over the old lighthouse.
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.
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.
It strikes me that you have come off uncommonly easy, seeing as how things were. No mess, no breakages, no odds and ends from every room that you can't remember until it's too late to claim. Just one big lot taken clean.
A feat sometimes achieved by outstanding local athletes is to throw a cricket ball clean over the top [of the viaduct].
Now they were faced with the problem of a northerly blow, which could soon send a heavy swell clean into the bay.
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.
Adjective
free from dirt or impurities; or having clean habits
- Antonyms
- Examples
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children with clean shining faces
clean white shirts
More examples (3)
clean dishes
a spotlessly clean house
cats are clean animals
free of restrictions or qualifications
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a clean bill of health
a clear winner
(of sound or color) free from anything that dulls or dims
- Examples
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efforts to obtain a clean bass in orchestral recordings
clear laughter like a waterfall
More examples (2)
clear reds and blues
a light lilting voice like a silver bell
free from impurities
- Synonyms
- Examples
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clean water
fresh air
(of a record) having no marks of discredit or offense
- Examples
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a clean voting record
a clean driver's license
ritually clean or pure
- Antonyms
not spreading pollution or contamination; especially radioactive contamination
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- Examples
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a clean fuel
cleaner and more efficient engines
More examples (1)
the tactical bomb is reasonably clean
(of behavior or especially language) free from objectionable elements; fit for all observers
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- Examples
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good clean fun
a clean joke
free from sepsis or infection
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a clean (or uninfected) wound
morally pure
- Synonyms
- Examples
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led a clean life
(of a manuscript) having few alterations or corrections
- Synonyms
- Examples
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fair copy
a clean manuscript
(of a surface) not written or printed on
- Examples
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blank pages
fill in the blank spaces
More examples (2)
a clean page
wide white margins
exhibiting or calling for sportsmanship or fair play
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a clean fight
a sporting solution of the disagreement
More examples (1)
sportsmanlike conduct
without difficulties or problems
- Examples
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a clean test flight
thorough and without qualification
- Examples
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a clean getaway
a clean sweep
More examples (1)
a clean break
not carrying concealed weapons
free from clumsiness; precisely or deftly executed
- Synonyms
- Examples
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he landed a clean left on his opponent's cheek
a clean throw
More examples (1)
the neat exactness of the surgeon's knife
free of drugs
- Examples
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after a long dependency on heroin she has been clean for 4 years
Noun
a weightlift in which the barbell is lifted to shoulder height and then jerked overhead
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
Adverb
completely; used as intensifiers
- Examples
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clean forgot the appointment
I'm plumb (or plum) tuckered out
in conformity with the rules or laws and without fraud or cheating
- Examples
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they played fairly
Verb
make clean by removing dirt, filth, or unwanted substances from
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- Examples
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Clean the stove!
The dentist cleaned my teeth
remove unwanted substances from, such as feathers or pits
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Clean the turkey
clean and tidy up the house
- Synonyms
- Examples
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She housecleans every week
clean one's body or parts thereof, as by washing
- Synonyms
- Examples
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clean up before you see your grandparents
clean your fingernails before dinner
be cleanable
- Examples
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This stove cleans easily
deprive wholly of money in a gambling game, robbery, etc.
- Examples
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The other players cleaned him completely
remove all contents or possession from, or empty completely
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The boys cleaned the sandwich platters
The trees were cleaned of apples by the storm
remove while making clean
- Examples
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Clean the spots off the rug
remove unwanted substances from
- Synonyms
remove shells or husks from
- Examples
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clean grain before milling it