clean

From Middle English clene, clane, from Old English clǣne (“clean, pure, chaste, innocent, unencumbered, unfettered, hallowed, clear, open, honorable, true, acute, sagacious, intellectual”), from Proto-Germanic *klainiz (“shining, fine, splendid, tender”), 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”), Low German kleen (“small”), Dutch klein (“small”), German klein (“small”), Swedish klen (“weak, feeble, delicate”), Icelandic klénn (“poor, feeble, petty, snug, puny, cheesy, lame”). Displaced Old English sȳfre (“clean, sober”), hlūtor (“pure, clear, clean, bright”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kliːn/, [kʰl̥iːn]
• (General American) enPR: klēn, IPA^(key): /klin/, [kʰl̥ĩn]

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• Rhymes: -iːn

clean (comparative cleaner, superlative cleanest)

1. (heading, physical) Free of dirt or impurities or protruberances.
   1. Not dirty.

      Are these dishes clean?  Your room is finally clean!

      • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0091:

        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.

   2. In an unmarked condition.

      Put a clean sheet of paper into the printer.

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

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

   5. (of metal) Having relatively few impurities.

      clean steel

2. (heading, behavioural) Free of immorality or criminality.
   1. Pure, especially morally or religiously.

      Our kids can watch this movie because it is clean.

      • Bible, Psalms li.10:

        Create in me a clean heart, O God.

      • (Can we date this quote?) Alfred Tennyson

        That I am whole, and clean, and meet for Heaven.

      • 1914, New Zealand Parliamentary Debates (volume 168, page 195)

        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.

   2. Not having used drugs or alcohol.

      I've been clean this time for eight months.

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

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

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

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

   5. (informal) Devoid of profanity.
3. Smooth, exact, and performed well.

   I’ll need a sharper knife to make clean cuts.  a clean leap over a fence

4. (obsolete) Total; utter. (still in "clean sweep")
   • James Howell

     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.

5. (informal) Cool or neat.

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

6. (health) Being free of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

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

7. That does not damage the environment.

   clean energy;  clean coal

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

   clean land;  clean timber

9. Free from restraint or neglect; complete; entire.
   • Bible, Leviticus xxiii.22:

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

10. Well-proportioned; shapely.

    clean limbs

11. (climbing, of a route) Ascended without falling.

• (not dirty): Thesaurus:clean

• dirty
• unclean

clean (plural cleans)

1. Removal of dirt.

   This place needs a clean.

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

• power clean

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

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

   Can you clean the windows today?

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

   Clean your room right now!

3. (transitive, climbing) To remove equipment from a climbing route after it was previously lead climbed.
4. (intransitive) To make things clean in general.

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

5. (transitive, computing) To remove unnecessary files, etc. from (a directory, etc.).
6. (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.
7. (manga fandom slang) To purge a raw of any blemishes caused by the scanning process such as brown tinting and poor color contrast.
8. To remove guts and/or scales of a butchered animal.

• See also Thesaurus:make clean

clean (comparative cleaner, superlative cleanest)

1. Fully and completely.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎:

     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.

   He was stabbed clean through.

   You must be clean mad.

• Calne, Lance, ancle, clane, lance

Borrowed from English clean.

clean (neuter clean, plural and definite singular attributive clean)

1. drugfree, not having used recreational drugs

From English clean.

• IPA^(key): [kliːn]

clean (comparative cleaner, superlative am cleansten)

1. (colloquial) clean, drugfree

• clean in Duden online

From Old Irish clíabán.

clean m (genitive singular clean, plural cleanyn)

1. cradle (oscillating bed for a baby)

   Ta dooinney ny ghaa leaystey clean nagh vel bentyn da hene.

   There’s a man or two rocking the cradle of another man’s child.

2. cot
3. cage (of birds)
4. pannier