adverb
-
in a fair manner
-
easily or smoothly
the screw went into the wood cleanly
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cleanly
before 900; Middle English clenlich ( e ), Old English clǣnlīc, equivalent to clǣne clean + -līc -ly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It maps on pretty cleanly because a lot of the cases that people really like involve the court enforcing federal legislation.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
Mr. Westrate makes for a cleanly spoken and brutally cool Iago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Sharia-compliant funds make the point even more cleanly.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
When he fielded it cleanly, Tucker shuffled back toward third base.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
Mrs. Monroe took her sharpest knife and cut cleanly through the thing.
From "Bunnicula" by Deborah Howe and James Howe
The little inn was cleanlier and better kept than many of the more pretentious ones.
From British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car Being A Record Of A Five Thousand Mile Tour In England, Wales And Scotland by Murphy, Thomas Dowler
There are also, however, cleanlier families, in whose sleeping chamber the air is not so disgusting.
From The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II by Leslie, Alexander, fl. 1879-1882
Sir, I Had rather like the first best; not onely because it is cleanlier, but because it reflects least upon the other party, which, in all jest and earnest, in this affair, I wish avoided.
From Letters to Severall Persons of Honour by Donne, John
To this Gargantua answered, that he had taken such a course for that himself, that in all the country there was not to be found a cleanlier boy than he.
From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 1 by Motteux, Peter Anthony
His hair and beard were freshly trimmed, and he had a cleanlier look than we have hitherto noticed; moreover, his expression had lost a little of its habitual sullen truculence.
From Till the Clock Stops by Bell, J. J. (John Joy)
Their cleanliest monthly average is 54 tons of dirt to the square mile.
From Time Magazine Archive
The gentle Maldivians are among Asia's best-fed, cleanliest and healthiest people.
From Time Magazine Archive
The sheep, the cleanliest of creatures, here made a symbol of those who have all their sins washed away in the fountain of redeeming mercy.
From New Tabernacle Sermons by Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
Another time, however, I will visit neither the one nor the other; but take up my quarters at the King of Wirtemberg--the neatest, cleanliest, and most comfortable hotel in Stuttgart.
From A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three by Dibdin, Thomas Frognall
She, that was the cleanliest creature in the world, never shrank now if you set a close-stool under her nose.
From History of John Bull by Arbuthnot, John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
