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clean as a whistle



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Idioms and Phrases

Completely, entirely, thoroughly, as in He chopped off the branch, clean as a whistle . The allusion in this simile is unclear. It may have been a replacement for the 18th-century clear as a whistle , which alluded to the pure, clean sound of a whistle (it has few overtones). However, it was adopted to describe something thoroughly done. [Early 1800s]

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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.

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