clean

adj

1. Free of dirt, filth, or impurities (extraneous matter); not dirty, filthy, or soiled.

   “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.”

   “Very fine, well-sorted, clean sand with no shells.”

   “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.”

2. Free of dirt, filth, or impurities (extraneous matter); not dirty, filthy, or soiled.

   “clean steel”

3. Free of contamination, (unwanted) germs, infection, or disease.

   “Insert a clean swab into your nose.”

   “"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."”

4. Free of contamination, (unwanted) germs, infection, or disease.

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

5. (slang)Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects.

   “Our team won, but it wasn't clean.”

6. Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects.
7. Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects.

   “clean land”

   “clean timber”

8. Free of imperfections, blemishes, or defects.

   “Put a clean sheet of paper into the printer.”

9. Free of immorality or criminality.

   “Our kids can watch this movie because it is clean.”

   “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”

   “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.”

10. Free of immorality or criminality.

    “go clean”

    “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”

11. Free of immorality or criminality.

    “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!”

12. (informal)Free of immorality or criminality.

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

13. (informal)Free of immorality or criminality.
14. Free of infiltration by covert listening or recording devices (bugs), enemy spies, etc.

    “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[…]"”

15. Empty.

    “The cargo hold is clean.”

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

16. Smooth, exact, and performed well.

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

    “a clean leap over a fence”

    “a clean left-footed shot into the top corner of the goal”

17. That does not damage the environment (as much as some alternative).

    “clean energy”

    “clean coal”

    “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."”

18. Allowing an uninterrupted flow over surfaces, without protrusions such as racks or landing gear.
19. Having the undercarriage and flaps in the up position.
20. Well-proportioned; shapely.

    “clean limbs”

21. (informal)Cool or neat.

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

22. Utter, complete, total; pure; free from restraint.

    “a clean sweep”

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

    “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

1. A removal of dirt.

   “This place needs a clean.”

   “Give the pan a thorough clean.”

2. The first part of the event clean and jerk in which the weight is brought from the ground to the shoulders.
3. (in-plural)Of heavy metal, clear vocals, contrasted with death growls and screams.

   “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.”

   “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

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

   “The fishmonger cleaned the mackerel.”

10. (slang)To beat, to thrash; to defeat.

adv

1. Fully and completely.

   “He was stabbed clean through.”

   “You must be clean mad.”

   “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.”

name

1. A surname.