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clean hands, have



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Idioms and Phrases

Be innocent or guiltless, as in John's got clean hands; he had nothing to do with it . It is sometimes worded as one's hands are clean , meaning “one has done nothing wrong,” as in Don't look at me—my hands are clean . This metaphor for freedom from wrongdoing dates back to at least 1600.

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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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